Elon Musk speaks at the opening of the Tesla Berlin Gigafactory. Thirty cars were delivered at the event. The opening was delayed for many months. The first phase of the factory will produce 500,000 to 700,000 cars per year. It should produce about 1000-2000 cars per week in Q2 (April-June) and then ramp towards 10,000 …
Russia is still slowly taking some smaller cities in the southeast of Ukraine but the Kyiv offensive is bogged down. What we have clearly learned is that Russia’s military and its equipment remain second rate. Russia has taken significant chunks of Eastern Ukraine but that seems to be the limit of their capability. Russia would …
There are various reports about Putin having decades long anger at Russia losing the Cold War to the West. Putin felt humiliated that Russia was treated as second rate by the West after the USSR fell. Big tough Putin and Russia with nuclear weapons demanded respect and is forcing respect by taking maybe half of …
Chris Cappy of Task and Purpose and Bill Roggio are both veterans of the US military. They both agree that some delays and problems for Russia are expected. However, Russia is reaching its military objectives. The 40-mile long column of tanks are stopped to set up a forward base of operations. Artillery and tanks are …
Ukraine is getting a total of 70 fighter jets from Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia. Russia already had failed to establish air superiority. Germany is sending antiaircraft missiles. This is significant military hardware. The economic sanctions triggered a bank run in Russia and have given Russia about a 30% hit to its economy. Inflation in Russia …
How hard would it be to replace Russian oil and gas exports to Europe and then to Asia? Brad Templeton wrote on Facebook that 50% of Russians get their income from the government, which gets 43% of its revenue from oil and gas and is 1/3rd of the GDP. Putin rules only because Europe keeps …
Plug-in electric car sales in China in October 2021 more than doubled October 2020 to over 325,000. Battery electric cars are now over 13% of China’s total new car market. The share of battery electric cars is rapidly growing in China and Europe. Germany is 30% EV. A rapid shift four to six year shift …
Airbus is developing and building JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) spacecraft for the European Space Agency, which will study Jupiter and its icy moons. In May 2022, JUICE will begin a 7.6 year cruise to Jupiter to spend three and a half years in the Jovian system. Its main mission will be to explore the …
Ukraine’s army commander Gen Ruslan Khomchak says Russia has deployed 28 battalion tactical groups near Ukraine’s eastern border and in Crimea. This is 20,000-25,000 troops. Russian officials have not confirmed that, nor given any precise figures. The Russian military has confirmed that an airborne assault brigade – about 4,000 troops – is being redeployed to …
In 2014, Arianespace had 60% of commercial launch but they were passed by SpaceX in launch market share in 2017. Paris and Rome have created a “working group on the future of European launchers” which will deliver conclusions in September. SpaceX was third place in number of launches in 2014 and 2015. SpaceX passed Russia …
Oxford Photovoltaic is building the world’s first volume manufacturing line for perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells. Oxford is working with leading photovoltaic equipment supplier, Meyer Burger. They will install a silicon heterojunction solar cell line, enhanced with production equipment for the perovskite top cell. The fully integrated line will be built at an industrial site in …
