Tesla is using large cranes to put pre-constructed wall and roof sections into place for the Gigafactory in Berlin. This appears to be on track to reach the completion of the outside building structure by the end of August. This would place the factory at about the June 2020 stage of Tesla Shanghai. There would then be the installation of air condition equipment and ducts, electrical and lighting and installation of factory equipment. Tesla Shanghai completed those phases from June to September in 2019.
Timelapse Satellite Photos Comparing Tesla Gigafactories Under Construction
Tesla Shanghai Construction From February to November 2019
Jay in Shanghai showed Tesla Shanghai progress every week to two weeks with drone video.
SOURCES- Torque News, Jay in Shanghai, giga berlin
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com (Brian owns shares of Tesla)
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.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
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Back in the late 90’s I built a home in Michigan with prefab panels. Not quite that complete, but they had the virtue of being able to be handled by one person.
That’s how the factory I work in was built. Not quite a few hours, if you count the curing time for the cement floor, though. That took a long while.
If we are deorbiting things that we did not have to launch first(!), it is not too hard. The material of the *capsule* can itself be product, useful on Earth. Landing in water that has bubbles in it is quite soft. This is not true of the Moon, where aerobrake does not work. I do agree that we should think of using these things in Space rather than Earth, that is the main point of O’Neill, but mining in particular is really bad on Earth compared to likely small NEO/TCO finds, when we can see stuff that is small enuf to use. In the long run, the Earth will be a Nature Preserve, and the idea of mining and heavy manufacturing here will seem ancient.
The only metals and heavy manufacturing that should be produced in space are the ones that will stay there. Otherwise, it’s far too energy intensive and dangerous to get them back down the gravity well intact. Earth will always have its major products produced on the surface, it’s simply the least energy intensive way to do it. Rare metals like platinum, fine, but anything less rare? No point.
Even when building houses in some cases. It is not efficient to make tiny bricks and then assemble they on site, too much work, material wasted. Faster, cheaper is to make large concrete panels in the first place and then assemble them on site. Better to use larger mouds instead so many small ones.
Many of those techniques were pioneered in Germany.
The markets for metal, energy and heavy mfg are currently on Earth, but the place to make/do these things is Space. This is urgent in the case of Space Solar, our only plausible (at least cheapest) hope for stopping global heating, IMHO. The first market for ISRU will be to make more ISRU, then grow from there. Bringing product from Space is fairly *easy*, and in the case of power beaming, superior to Earth transmission lines, or pipelines, for that matter.
It appears prefab concrete panels are now the preferred way of putting up industrial buildings globally. Even smaller 5000 sq ft buildings seem to go up in a few hours, from a flat pad in the morning to all four walls when I drive back home. It’s simply cool.
Is anyone else in awe of the sheer size of these gigafactories?
Except there’s no car market in space. Unless you count the car Elon already sent into space, but we’re already at 100% saturation for that particulart market.
初来乍到，多多关照！消灭新冠，人人平安！
This is not uncommon in Europe. It is also done for smaller buildings. A friend of mine bought a 90m2 house that was delivered in wooden elements that each could be lifted by 3-4 persons. The elements come with windows installed. 5 friends built the entire outer shell of the house in 7 days.
Great article, but a couple of points here: 1. Giga Shanghai waited a long time for power from the substation. Hopefully that won’t be an issue here. 2. The robots are made in Germany, and the specifics of the line have been worked out at other factories. 3. Electric and other interior work will be begin in each section as soon as they are waterproof; they don’t wait until the whole factory shell is finished. Look at the update to Shanghai Q2 report 4. I would bet real money that they will be producing cars very close to the end of this year.
I knew China has developed advanced techniques for building fast using mostly pre-fabricated parts, but I didn’t know the Germans do the same thing? Or are these techniques available in other countrys but just not widely used for some reason? It seems like in US construction projects take forever.
“Tesla is using large cranes”. Gravity: Don’t fall for it! Let O’Neill/Galileo show the way to do things in the right place: Space.
End of August? You must be dreaming. Many of the pillars haven’t even been erected yet. The paint shop walls and roof may be completed this month, but the rest of the factory’s buildings won’t be ready for a minimum of 3 months.