Russia Building World's Largest Li-Ion Battery Plant 128
MikeChino writes "Russia and China are gearing up to dominate the lithium-ion battery industry by launching the world's largest Li-ion plant (press release). Planned for Novobirsk, Russia, the facility will be a joint venture between Chinese firm Thunder Sky and RUSNANO (a Russian state-run corporation) and it will be able to produce up to 500,000 batteries (of all sizes) per year."
Novosibirsk (Score:2, Informative)
There is no Novobirsk in Russia. It is most likely Novosibirsk ().
Good Luck with That (Score:2, Informative)
A lot fo american companies went into Russia in the 90s and most of them got burned. The corruption in Russia makes Chinese corruption look quaint. One company I worked for would send crates full of high tech computers and equipment to the factories in Russia, only to find a bunch of rocks in the crates when they opened them up in the factory.
Re:world's largest??? (Score:5, Informative)
500,000 batteries per year is considered that large? When Apple is selling close to 20,000,000 iPads/year? And iPhones, and all the PC manufacturers laptops/netbooks, and all the Android phones, and all the other phones? What do they all do, buy batteries from dozens of different manufacturers for each of their popular products? Really?
Those piddly little things are called cells. If you only have on in a device, yes you might call it a battery, but you would be bringing shame to the likes of REAL batteries. In TFA, they have a pic of a 40V/40AH *battery* which means it can deliver 1600 WH, or the equivalent of around 1,000 of those piddly little "batteries" you refer to that inhabit iThings.
Re:Li? (Score:5, Informative)
Contrary to many scare reports, lithium is not particularly rare or expensive -- under $10 a kilogram for lithium carbonate, which is used to make a dozen or two percent of the mass of batteries that sell for hundreds of dollars per kilogram. It's a couple percent of the cost. The main risk for lithium is temporary supply shortages, where demand outgrows production rates (it takes many years to get a new mine started). And of course, everyone wants to produce the cheapest stuff, but the cheapest stuff isn't always in the best of locations (producing from seawater -- a basically boundless supply -- costs ~$30 or so per kilogram of carbonate, versus a couple dollars per kilogram from a good lithium-rich playa.
It's not batteries that will be displaced by elevated lithium prices, but the other uses, which currently make up the vast majority of lithium consumption -- alloys, greases, glass, ceramics, etc.
Someone Screwed Up the Rewrite (Score:5, Informative)
Perhaps the poster should have read the article. The 500,000 figure comes from the number of buses they expect to be able to equip with batteries each year. It seems while we can't even read, the Chinese and the Russians are moving ahead to OWN the battery market for vehicles.