A report published by Bloomberg Intelligence in June said factories planned by Chinese companies could have the battery capacity to produce more than 120 GWh by 2021 – enough to supply 1.5 million Tesla Model S vehicles. This will be over three times initial the battery cell capacity of the Tesla Gigafactory at 35 GWh.
As of 2014, the projected capacity of Gigafactory for 2020 was to have been 35 gigawatt-hours per year of cells as well as 50 gigawatt-hours per year (5.7 MW) of battery packs. During the 2016 Tesla Shareholders Meeting, Elon Musk announced that the company could triple the total planned battery output of the Gigafactory to ~105 GWh of cells and ~150 GWh of battery packs – or over 3 times the current total li-ion battery production worldwide.
Germany has announced a new plan for a $1 billion factory on batteries. Frankfurt-based start-up TerraE Holding GmbH is preparing to set up its own 34 GWh lithium-ion battery cell production facilities.
The world will need 100 Gigafactories to transition to electric transport and renewable energy.
Thailand-based Energy Absolute Pcl, a company developing solar projects, confirmed that it is preparing to spend up to 100 billion baht ($2.9 billion) on an important battery factory project that could produce up to 50 GWh of li-ion batteries per year.
The recent announcements follow at least five gigafactory proposals put forward for Europe before the end of last year, including facilities in Sweden, Hungary and Poland. Not all the new plants will focus on lithium-ion batteries, though.
Global battery-making capacity is set to more than double by 2021, topping 278 gigawatt-hours a year compared to 103 gigawatt-hours at present.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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