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Jason Shawhan, Tesla’s director of manufacturing at Giga Texas, recently gave a rare talk about the facility’s existing operations and the company’s plans for the future. The executive shared the information during a keynote address at the State of Manufacturing conference and expo, which was held by the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association.

Tesla is the world’s most valuable automaker by market cap, and its CEO, Elon Musk, is one of the most visible chief executives in the auto industry. Despite this, Tesla has a reputation for being tight-lipped when it comes to the details of its operations. Rare appearances from high-ranking executives such as Shawhan, who serves as director of manufacturing at Gigafactory Texas, are therefore very interesting.

Shawhan did not disappoint, as he did share a number of important insights about the facility. As noted in a report from the Austin Business Journal, the executive confirmed that Giga Texas has become the second-largest private employer in the region because the factory currently employs over 20,000 workers today. This is a notable increase from the 12,277 employees that Tesla confirmed at the end of 2022. Considering Gigafactory Texas’ growth so far, it would appear that the facility would be outpacing Musk’s estimates.

Long charging times and limited access to fast chargers can be the dealbreakers for electric vehicle buyers today. But technology advancements are often fast-paced, and it’s hard to predict how close, or far, we are from the next big breakthrough. However, battery scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) might have a solution for charging speeds.

ORNL’s paper highlights a new lithium-ion battery that can not only recharge to 80 percent in 10 minutes but also sustain the fast charging ability for 1,500 cycles. For those new to the EV language, battery charge, and discharge occur when ions travel between the positive and negative electrodes through a medium called an electrolyte.

Getting to fifteen hundred charging cycles isn’t a new development. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in 2019 that the Model 3’s battery modules were designed to last 1,500 cycles or between 300,000 and 500,000 miles.

In the first and second parts of this series, pv magazine reviewed the productive lifespan of residential solar panels and inverters. Here, we examine home batteries, how well they perform over time, and how long they last.

Residential energy storage has become an increasingly popular feature of home solar. A recent SunPower survey of more than 1,500 households found that about 40% of Americans worry about power outages on a regular basis. Of the survey respondents actively considering solar for their homes, 70% said they planned to include a battery energy storage system.

Besides providing backup power during outages, many batteries are integrated with technology that allows for intelligent scheduling of the import and export of energy. The goal is to maximize the value of the home’s solar system. And, some batteries are optimized to integrate an electric vehicle charger.

Tesla suspends the base Model Y AWD in the United States. This might have to do with the upcoming Cybertruck and 4680-cell shortage at Giga Texas.

Tesla has built new in-car software specifically for Hertz’s growing fleet of Tesla vehicles for rent around the world.

Back in 2021, Hertz announced an important effort to electrify its fleet of rental cars, led by a massive purchase of 100,000 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. More recently, the company added Model Y vehicles to the order.

The rental company’s Tesla fleet has been growing over the last few years, and it reported that Tesla vehicles are increasing Hertz’s customer satisfaction.

A study showing how electrons flow around sharp bends, such as those found in integrated circuits, has the potential to improve how these circuits, commonly used in electronic and optoelectronic devices, are designed.

It has been known theoretically for about 80 years that when electrons travel around bends, they tend to heat up because their flow lines get squished locally. Until now, however, no one had measured the heat, for which imaging the flow lines is first needed.

The research team, led by Nathaniel M. Gabor at the University of California, Riverside, imaged streamlines of electric current by designing an “electrofoil,” a new type of device that allows for the contortion, compression, and expansion of streamlines of electric currents in the same way airplane wings contort, compress, and expand the flow of air.

The research involved shooting laser beams thinner than the width of human hair on minerals found in an Australian diamond mine.

A collaboration between researchers in the UK, China, and Australia has found the elusive ingredient needed to turn diamonds pink in color, a press release said. This crucial information could help in finding more deposits of the rare precious stone.

It is widely known that the formation of diamonds happens deep inside the Earth. Diamond deposits and mines, however, occur at much shallower depths. This is made possible by the rapid transportation of these carbon structures by deep Earth volcanoes that bring them closer to the surface.

It’s not rocket science, but instead “carbon-neutral” jet-fuel science.

It’s simply a method for pulling carbon pollution and water from the air and using the sun’s energy to turn these into fuel for an airplane.

Continue reading “Revolutionary solar tower can create jet fuel out of thin air — and it may be the key to cleaning up the aviation sector” »

Japanese researchers hope that a made-in-Japan AI chatbot could help to accelerate science.

Best known for automobiles and consumer electronics, Japan has fallen behind on recent technology trends like artificial intelligence. Its scientists believe that as the country’s population shrinks, Japan will have a strong incentive to make great leaps in AI and robotics to maintain productivity.

Although ChatGPT is being used by Japanese municipalities to carry out governmental work, Japanese scientists say that the country needs to come up with its own version of ChatGPT.