The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Sorted by date Results 1 - 20 of 20
Li-Bridge alliance unveils blueprint to build resilient US lithium battery supply chain. A wide chasm lies between where the United States is today and securing the lithium battery mineral resources and manufacturing capacity required to achieve ambitious visions of a green energy future where electric vehicles are charged with low-carbon energy. An alliance of America's national laboratories and more than 40 companies representing the entire lithium battery supply chain have...
Loan will support US plant capable of producing EV battery materials at the giga-scale. Toward the White House's goal of zero-emission vehicles making up half of all car sales in the U.S. by 2030, the U.S. Department of Energy has conditionally committed to lend $2 billion to Redwood Materials Inc. to support the expansion and construction of a battery recycling and manufacturing complex in Nevada. Announced on Thursday via the DOE Loan Programs Office, Redwood will use the...
Tesla's 140 GWh plant will produce batteries for 1.5M EVs per year; need globally significant mineral supplies. Tesla Inc. set the standard for giga-scale lithium-ion battery manufacturing with the startup of its 35 gigawatt-hour-per-year Gigafactory in Nevada in 2016. Now, the pioneering company is setting a new benchmark for electric vehicle battery production with a massive 100 GWh expansion of its world-changing factory. The news that Tesla has committed to investing heavi...
A mine that could suck billions of tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turn it to stone while also producing the nickel, cobalt, and other metals needed for zero-emissions electric vehicles would be the ultimate prize for Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk. Carbin Minerals and Carbfix, two companies developing just that type of technology, have been awarded $1 million from XPRIZE, a global future-positive movement envisioned by Musk and supported by his foundation. XPRIZE...
Replacing this oft-maligned lithium-ion battery metal comes at a cost Traditionally a headline-grabbing metal due to the perceived human rights and monetary costs it adds to lithium-ion batteries and the electric vehicles they power, cobalt is being overshadowed by the enormous demand and price increases for the lithium and nickel that also go into the storage cells that deliver the "E" to the EV revolution. Cobalt, however, continues to be a vital ingredient that improves...
Tesla and other automakers clamor for nickel suppliers with low CO2 footprint Tesla CEO Elon Musk's 2020 appeal to "please mine more nickel" served as a rallying cry for mining companies with projects positioned to deliver this critical battery metal into global markets. Going into 2022, however, the electric vehicle trailblazer's words were echoing in nearly empty warehouses as the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs are demanding more nickel than global miners can supply....
Electric Vehicles require six times the minerals than their fossil fuel forebearers With even the most basic models boasting sophisticated driver-assist, navigation, infotainment, diagnostics, and other advanced digital systems being fed power from oversized versions of the lithium-ion batteries found in your laptop or smartphone, electric vehicles are becoming personal computers that you can drive. While this puts a whole new spin on the term mobile computing, riding around i...
Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi Corp. has entered into a deal to gain a foothold in a potential nickel-cobalt mine at Giga Metals Corp.'s Turnagain project in Northern British Columbia, Canada. Best known for manufacturing automobiles, Mitsubishi is involved with a broad spectrum of businesses including industrial materials and mineral resources. The Turnagain project offers this diversified company a potential carbon-neutral source of the nickel and cobalt that are in...
Another major automaker has gotten in line to purchase future supplies of low-carbon lithium that Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd. will be cooking up from geothermal brines at its Hell's Kitchen project in the Salton Sea area of Southern California. On June 2, Stellantis signed a binding offtake agreement with CTR for up to 25,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide per year for the batteries going into Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and other electric vehicles it wil...
European battery supplier Northvolt Nov. 12 announced that its recycling program, Revolt, has produced its first lithium-ion battery cell featuring a nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode entirely from recovered battery waste. "What we have shown here is a clear pathway to closing the loop on batteries and that there exists a sustainable, environmentally-preferable alternative to conventional mining in order to source raw materials for battery production," said Emma Nehrenheim,...
A mine that produced the nickel and cobalt needed for the lithium-ion batteries powering zero-emission electric vehicles and offering the added benefit of locking up carbon dioxide in rocks for geological time periods would be considered an optimum solution in the battle against global warming. Recent tests carried out at the University of British Columbia indicate the potential that Giga Metals Corp.'s Turnagain project in Northern BC could be one such greenhouse gas-absorbin...
As part of a strategy to significantly lower the cost, improve the performance, and minimize the environmental footprint of batteries going into its expanding line-up of electric vehicles in Europe, Volkswagen Group has placed a US$14 billion order with Sweden-based Northvolt. This massive deal between the European e-mobility partners announced on the eve of Volkswagen Power Day, a March 15 event that laid out the German automaker's roadmap to making the electric car...
Minerva Intelligence Inc. announced Feb. 19, the successful implementation of its TARGET software for Giga Metals Corp., with prospectivity results compiled for its Parnaiba Basin copper project in Brazil, leading to the decision to acquire new exploration permits. Minerva, finding success in its artificial intelligence-driven suite of mineral exploration software and services, was enlisted by fellow Canadian Giga Metals to use its expertise to determine new prospective...
Just a week after Tesla Battery Day 2020, where CEO Elon Musk unveiled the electric automaker's massive lithium-ion battery ambitions, the iconic electric automaker has cut a deal to buy some of the lithium it will require for this plan from a mine in North Carolina and has begun moving ahead with a Texas refinery to transform the raw lithium concentrates into the form needed for its batteries. These two moves will shorten Tesla's North American mines-to-electric vehicle...
Tesla wants low-carbon nickel from a future mine at Giga Metals' Turnagain nickel-cobalt deposit in northern British Columbia, Canada, according to Reuters. Citing three unnamed sources, the global news agency said Tesla is in discussion with the Canadian miner to advance development of a mine that would produce nickel and cobalt, both vital ingredients in the lithium-ion batteries that power its electric vehicles. These reports have not been confirmed by either company....
Long before Tesla CEO Elon Musk called on miners to produce more of the nickel needed in the lithium-ion batteries powering a rapidly expanding electric vehicle sector in an environmentally sensitive way, Giga Metals Corp. was working toward that very goal at its Turnagain nickel-cobalt deposit in northern British Columbia, Canada. "Further to Elon Musk's specific call to nickel producers to pursue environmentally friendly nickel in high volume made during Tesla's latest...
Most people know Tesla Inc. as a world-leading electric vehicles manufacturer with a growing line of cars, trucks and SUVs. However, the company's foundation is built off its ability to make batteries that power models S, 3, X, Y, Roadster, Tesla Semi, Cybertruck and even Solar Roof. Quite literally, Tesla's EV production capacity can only grow as fast as the company can manufacture the lithium-ion batteries that power them. "So the thing we're going to be really focused on...
"Please mine more nickel," these four words from Tesla CEO Elon Musk reverberated across the global mining sector and raised awareness of how fundamental nickel is to the lithium-ion batteries powering hundreds of millions of electric vehicles to come off Tesla and traditional automaker assembly lines over the next two decades. "Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way," Musk implored...
The lightest of all the metals in the universe, lithium has emerged as the namesake for the batteries powering electric vehicles down global highways and storing renewable energy for those EVs to plug into. This is on top of the countless laptops, tablets, smartphones, wearable electronics, power tools, household appliances, electric bikes, scooters, toys, and the seemingly endless list of electric devices made possible by lithium-ion batteries. "Lithium consumption for...
The envisioned green future where every North American is driving a battery-powered electric vehicle charged with renewable energy could be undermined by cobalt, a somewhat scarce and controversial metal that makes lithium-ion batteries better. "Cobalt is considered the highest material supply chain risk for electric vehicles in the short and medium term," the U.S. Department of Energy penned in an April report. This risk has automakers, lithium-ion battery manufacturers, and...