The Big Battery Factory

[Canny lass]

Pity they aren't interested in establishing themselves here! Northvolt premises should be available soon! They promised the earth but despite having thousands employed they haven't been able to produce more than 5% of what they promised. BMW, one of their biggest investors has withdrawn an order for billions because Northvolt simply isn't meeting the promised production and Scania have done likewise. Plans for a further three factories has been placed on hold. Soon there won't be any need for batteries here as sales of EVs has plummeted because of the uncertainty. Having said that, it hasn't helped that Northvolt has had a spate of 'mysterious deaths 'at their factory this year or that petrol prices have reached an all-time low.

[Vic Patterson]

Ditto Canada. Our government is also pouring BILLIONS of dollars into foreign companies to build batteries but we are still to see production! or any significant improvement in battery technology that make EV's viable in our climate and geography.

Steam and electricity were the automobile preferred means of power until gasoline/petrol took over, (gasoline/petrol was a discarded byproduct) when and if they improve EV's to be at least as practical  in all environments, and not just city driving. Industry will be clamouring to build batteries and not having to be bribed too!

I don't see ANY proposals for remote or emergency electrical generation that presently uses IC. I rely on my small IC generator for our power outages, especially at -40c or +30c! I can see small nuclear power packs! I still think tidal power is still the largest unharness source of global power! 

I do hope that the proposed Data Center is built, even if the employment numbers aren't as large as advertised, there is still construction and then maintenance.

 

  

[Canny lass]

Breaking News - Northvolt have just announced that 1 600 jobs must go at the Skellefteå factory! I wonder what they'll do with all the housing that was built especially to accommodate the workforce that was 'needed'.

I agree with you, Vic, that tidal energy is worth looking at more closely. The tides are reliant on the sun and the moon and they aren't going anywhere so they should be a constant, reliable source. Sweden doesn't have a great deal of tidal water so it's maybe not the best option here but the Faroe Islands (Denmark) are investing heavily in tidal energy, planting 'kites' on the ocean floor that then sway in the tidal waters just as real kites sway in the air. They are planning on being totally converted to tidal power by 2030 so that project is worth watching.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

2 hours ago, Canny lass said:

Breaking News - Northvolt have just announced that 1 600 jobs must go at the Skellefteå factory!

Their web site still showing 3,500+ jobs :- 

https://northvolt.com/manufacturing/ett/

 

[Vic Patterson]

6 hours ago, Canny lass said:

that tidal energy is worth looking at more closely

Our Bay of Fundy has up to 16 meter tidal difference, I didn't realize that many countries were successfully using tidal/wave power, once harnessed the power, electricity can be moved over very long distances! Canada has lots of Hydro power.

[Canny lass]

13 hours ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

Their web site still showing 3,500+ jobs :- 

The news bulletin was just released on Friday night. What Northvolt have said is that "1 600 jobs must go". From what I understand, 1 000 of these jobs are at the factory, 400 are at the labs for product development and 200 at the head office in Stockholm so they are spread over the whole company. As yet nobody has been given notice of termination of employment, so you won't see any changes yet. Just a couple of weeks ago they were talking about just 300 jobs that must go!  Naturally, the unions are up in arms.

I think most people have expected this as Northvolt has been experiencing a financial crisis for a couple of years now and bankruptcy has been up for discussion on several occasions.

[Canny lass]

10 hours ago, Vic Patterson said:

Canada has lots of Hydro power.

Same here. The biggest distributor is in fact called Waterfall.

[Vic Patterson]

6 hours ago, Canny lass said:

Same here. The biggest distributor is in fact called Waterfall.

Over here no one calls electricity electricity they call it Hydro! still confuses me.... (so easily done)

[Canny lass]

Did I understand you correctly, Vic, - your electricity comes from waterpower?

[Vic Patterson]

1 hour ago, Canny lass said:

Did I understand you correctly, Vic, - your electricity comes from waterpower?

Yes, 60% the rest is a mix, nuclear, gas, oil, wind, solar, stopped using coal but sell it to the USA who generate with it and we buy that power! $$$ its odd when people loose hydro, meaning electricity!  

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/cambois-qts-blackstone-datacentre-30040349?fbclid=IwY2xjawFo1G1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHelTQqer6zG_UMIyHLIej9wtdt55fpMWziqjd2EJh_jgRYQLM85ZoS9rQg_aem_Kw40vxjBh9gk9qudhLBkKA

 

[Canny lass]

Nice! I like the idea of the community drop-ins.

[Mal]

If anyone wants to know whats going in now..............

 

 

[threegee]

On 27/09/2024 at 16:49, Canny lass said:

...Soon there won't be any need for batteries here as sales of EVs has plummeted because of the uncertainty...

Sales of pure EVs are up 23% year-on-year internationally.  Much of what you read in the media about plunging EV sales is a distortion of the true position.  The media has an agenda driven by their advertisers.  It's true that consumers aren't buying German EVs, and that German sales fell sharply after a large rise due to German buyers bringing forward purchases due to their government scrapping subsidies.

Except for the German made Tesla Model 'Y' German manufactured EVs aren't actually very good.  The consumer eventually worked this out, but you won't hear this in the bought and paid for media reports!  All German car sales are plunging worldwide, not just their underwhelming EVs!  The German motor industry is facing its biggest ever crisis and lots of factory closures are imminent.  All VW staff have been mandated a 10% pay cut, and they are just the lucky ones who aren't being made redundant.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

The Nissan Sunderland plant in our area has it's workers on a 'Stand-down' so they have stopped working on a Friday until they can move on all the excess cars they have manufactured, and storing onsite, until they can move the manufactured cars on to the rest of the world. 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Is this Bedlington Station's first public EV charging point? Clayton Street.

Edited October 31 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

[threegee]

3 hours ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

Is this Bedlington Station's first public EV charging point? Clayton Street.

Connector type? Cost per KW/h? Payment methods? And most importantly... the power available? Is it on Zapmap - yet?

Back in 2020 it was very disappointing to see just how backward the NE was when we drove our Tesla off the Zeebrugge ferry at North Shields. We'd driven some 1500Km from Italy and through the Alps with no problems whatsoever.  As soon as we landed on Tyneside, it was like stepping back into the 20th century. The charger at Cramlington was utter c**p and had delivered a measly single kilowatt-hour when we returned to the car after an hour in the shopping centre.  It turned out it couldn't process the credit card it initially accepted and had disconnected. The hotel (which I won't name) had a totally ambivalent attitude to EVs, and much else! They directed us to a couple of points up beside Northumberlandia, which clearly hadn't worked for months.

The only charging that actually worked was at the roundabout on the spine road, and that had a queue for the single pathetic 50Kwh (minus a lot) connector post. It was also overpriced by a lot, and there were ICE vehicles making access to it difficult.

Back on the continent again, it was plain sailing all the way to the Mediterranean, with no waiting anywhere for a charge; zero defective chargers encountered; and two hotels giving us free overnight charging.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

15 hours ago, threegee said:

Connector type? Cost per KW/h? Payment methods? And most importantly... the power available? Is it on Zapmap - yet?

 

@threegee - no idea on any of your '?'.

I no longer live in or visit Bedlington and don't drive. I will copy your '?' to the site where Cllr Alex Wallace posted it and see if he responds

[Canny lass]

On 31/10/2024 at 16:11, threegee said:

Much of what you read in the media about plunging EV sales is a distortion of the true position.  The media has an agenda driven by their advertisers. 

I think you may have understood me. I was referring only to EV sales in Sweden. I can't speak about Europe as media reports are unreliable.

On 27/09/2024 at 16:49, Canny lass said:

Soon there won't be any need for batteries here as sales of EVs has plummeted

As I'm sure you've noticed, I am no great fan of newspapers. They cater for their potential readers and their advertisers (as you rightly point out). The problem is (in relation to EV production and sales - and just about everything else) that different newspapers report the situation differently to suit clients needs and readers' expectations. For every report that says sales are decreasing you'll find another which says sales are increasing.

I based my statement on statistics from Mobility Sweden (MS), the branch organisation for producers and importers of  vehicles, who publish statistics of newly registered vehicles every month.  Sales of EVs are down 21% this year here.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

 

20 hours ago, threegee said:

Connector type? Cost per KW/h? Payment methods? And most importantly... the power available? Is it on Zapmap - yet?

 

 

5 hours ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

@threegee - no idea on any of your '?'.

I no longer live in or visit Bedlington and don't drive. I will copy your '?' to the site where Cllr Alex Wallace posted it and see if he responds

@threegee - reply from Cllr Alex Wallace = 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

On 31/10/2024 at 23:51, threegee said:

Connector type? Cost per KW/h? Payment methods? And most importantly... the power available? Is it on Zapmap - yet?

 

@threegee ;-

 

[threegee]

Poor show this still isn't on Zapmap: it's probably missing a load of potential users!

Can someone with a Zapmap account, and who can mark an exact position, please submit it?  A tiny bit difficult from here!

https://www.zap-map.com/add-a-charge-point

[Symptoms]

EVs are a brilliant idea ... until (as others here have said) you look at the vehicle charging infrastructure;  I'd buy an plugin EV if I could be sure of decent range and loads of FAST charging stations.  My observations when out and about is how scarce they are and when you see one that works there's usually a queue of cars waiting to get a connection.  I currently drive a  'mild hybrid' - 3 litre diesel engine with a big battery under the floor for the leccy motors so don't plugin.  They talk about fast home charging but most of the UK housing stock has limited electrical capacity - if you're lucky it'll be 100amps but more usually 80amps so good luck with getting a fast charger with that sort of 'crippled' supply even if you're lucky enough to have a driveway to park the motor;  ditto the street lamp idea ... limited electrical capacity.

So what about the hydrogen route ... makes sense for HGVs until you look at our old friend the infrastucture issue.  There's an article in The Engineer magazine discussing the issue in the USA and the ENORMOUS cost of building it.

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/project-launched-to-advance-heavy-duty-hydrogen-refuelling-infrastructure

So, SYM says, burn the diesel and to hell with polar bears.

[threegee]

On 13/12/2024 at 18:17, Symptoms said:

EVs are a brilliant idea ... until (as others here have said) you look at the vehicle charging infrastructure;  I'd buy an plugin EV if I could be sure of decent range and loads of FAST charging stations....

If you buy the right EV, there are no such problems.  We go anywhere in Europe without any worries as to charging.  The car knows where it's going to charge and when; it even predicts which chargers will be free when it arrives.  The normal spacing of 160Km for superchargers is now being filled-in to 80Km in many places.  In countless thousands of Km travelled, we've never had to wait to get charged anywhere.  Forward planning gets us free energy at a hotel overnight, but we don't depend on this.  I've even been toying with taking the car over to North Africa now there are a limited number of superchargers along the North African coast, but this is unlikely to happen as the last convenient car ferry from here ceased to run in the 1970s!  So... it will probably be a discounted ferry trip to Greece in the spring for the car.  I made an extremely long mains industrial-strength mains lead for our little charging block to pull out on an occasion when someone tells us the nearest domestic socket is too far away, but so far there's never been a need for it.  But we still take it as extra insurance.

You can go one heck of a distance on an overnight charge from just about any domestic socket.  Indeed, for around a year this was our only way to charge the car out here in the sticks, but proved perfectly satisfactory.  The only real motivation to install the wall charger was that we brought one with the car before we really knew what we were doing: it was collecting dust.  The minimum selectable charge rate for the car is a bit on the high side at 5A though - a lower setting would enable us to use limited solar over the day directly, and spread the charge more evenly overnight.  In regular daily use, it's normally fully charged (to 80%) by around 4 or 5am, even when it starts cheap rate charging after 1am.

The mistake most people make when buying an EV is they assume they are buying just another car, rather than buying into a complete ecosystem.  This echoes people who used to but computing equipment from spec sheets and reviews rather than looking at what applications were available and compatibility issues.  The media is the main culprit here, though, as there is just so much garbage printed in the regular motoring columns, and the huge advertising spend of German manufacturers means they can't publish an objective view.

So-called Hybrids: exactly why someone would buy into all the problems of lesser BEVs, and all the problems of ICE at one and the same time, is something I find hard to understand.  It's always amusing to see someone with a plug-in hybrid trying hard to avoid buying dinosaur juice, though!

 

[threegee]

On 01/11/2024 at 21:49, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

 

 

@threegee - reply from Cllr Alex Wallace = 

Thanks Eggy!  I reckon it's chicken and egg(y) here: they depend on keen users flagging up new installations, and if practically no one is using it yet then practically no one will report it.  ZapMap only covers the UK, so I've actually only referenced it once in the last five years.  BUT if you are in the UK (and don't have a Tesla) it's the primary goto.