Manufacturing

ChapGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image of an electric truck covered in circuitry charging at a truck stop

Dirt Cheap Batteries Enable Megawatt-Scale Charging Without Big Grid Upgrades Right Away

Battery prices have continued to plummet, frankly faster than even battery optimists such as myself dreamed of. We’re seeing commercial, scaled, price points that we didn’t expect to see until 2030 or later. That has big implications for electric trucking. In 2022, a kilowatthour of battery capacity cost US$159. In … [continued]

Conceptual rendering of Asahi Kasei’s Port Colborne facility (Graphic:Asahi Kasei)

Asahi Kasei Announces Port Colborne as Location of Future Lithium-ion Battery Separator Plant

Asahi Kasei announced today that it will construct its previously announced integrated lithium-ion battery (LIB) separator plant in Port Colborne, which is in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada. The new manufacturing facility will operate as Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada and is expected to create highly skilled, good paying … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated anoramic image of an electric semi truck covered in circuitry rolling along a highway beside a railroad where a long freight train is belching diesel smoke

Electric Trucks Are Already Lower Carbon Than Rail In Much Of North America

In 2010, I was consulting to Canadian National Railroad, at the time with the legendary Hunter Harrison as CEO. It was one of many times my decarbonization proposals bounced off of organizations, something that’s been inordinately useful in helping me understand how hardcore businesses view the space. At the time, … [continued]

The Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Database highlights companies at various points in the supply chain, ranging from mining and raw materials production to end-of-life recycling. Graphic by Joelynn Schroeder, NREL.

NREL Battery Supply Chain Database Maps Out the State of North America’s Manufacturing Base

As the United States continues to transition to clean energy, strengthening the domestic supply chain by increasing the availability of critical materials is paramount to enabling greater domestic manufacturing. This focus on securing the clean energy supply chain—in particular domestically—is a key part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) … [continued]

Biden-Harris Administration Announces $71M Investment to Advance American Solar Manufacturing and Development

18 Projects in 10 States Will Supercharge the U.S. Clean Energy Supply Chain and Open New Markets for Solar Technologies WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a $71 million investment, including $16 million from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image of a Tesla Supercharger with a camel and a big anthropomorphized sponge glaring at one another

Of Camels, Sponges, & Tesla’s Supercharging Team Firing

A great deal of digital ink has been spilled on Tesla laying off a lot of its Supercharger team recently. I’m not in the business of commenting on Tesla and Musk’s every twitch and tweet, so I don’t have fourteen hot takes already. But I have a hypothesis and it … [continued]

SEIA Statement on Biden Administration’s Action to Support American Clean Energy Manufacturing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, the Biden administration announced the results of its statutorily-mandated review of the Section 301 tariffs on China. Following is a statement from Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on the administration’s announcement:  “SEIA commends the Biden administration for taking … [continued]