The world’s largest battery factory will be 2.5x the size of Tesla’s Gigafactory
California-based Rondo Energy and Thailand’s Siam Cement Group are going to operate the world’s largest battery factory in Thailand.
The world’s largest battery factory
The production capacity of Rondo Heat Battery storage at Siam Cement Group’s factory is going to be ramped up from 2.4 GWh to 90 GWh per year – that’s larger than any existing or planned battery manufacturing factory worldwide.
The existing 160,000 square meters (1.72 million square feet) factory is going to be expanded. A spokesperson told Electrek that the launch timeline is over the next few years, but the two companies have not yet committed to a set date.
The 90 GWh of planned capacity will result in 12 million tons of CO2 emissions savings annually, equivalent to removing over 4 million ICE vehicles from the road each year.
How the Rondo Heat Battery works
Siam Cement Group is the largest and oldest cement building material company in Southeast Asia. Its subsidiary SRIC produces refractory bricks. Also called fire bricks, refractory bricks are made of fireproof materials that can withstand high temperatures.
Each brick that Siam Cement Group makes for Rondo’s batteries (pictured above) is 500 kg and stores 100 kWh – as much as a Tesla Model X.
Rondo Energy, which is backed by Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures and utility-backed Energy Impact Partners, launched its first commercial operating unit at an ethanol plant in Pixley, California, in March.
The Rondo Heat Battery captures intermittent electricity from solar and wind, stores the energy from that electricity as high-temperature heat in brick materials, and delivers the stored energy on demand as high-temperature heat and/or electricity:
The battery is made only of brick and iron. It charges in as little as four hours and stores heat energy at temperatures up to 1500° C for hours or days, delivering zero-carbon heat for such processes as steel, cement, and chemical manufacturing.
Rondo has designed its battery for such industries as steel, cement, grid energy storage, power plant conversion, and mining.
Here’s how Rondo says its batteries can reduce emissions in different sectors:
Raymond James energy analyst Pavel Molchanov said in a statement:
Electric thermal energy storage can play a useful role in addressing the needs of the industrial sector, which has been slow to decarbonize.
And, from an energy security standpoint, it is worth noting that this technology avoids the use of scarce and expensive materials.
Industry uses more energy than any other sector in the world, and most industrial energy is used as heat. Industrial heat consumes a quarter of total world energy and today releases a quarter of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
You can check out the Rondo Heat Battery’s specs here.
Read more: This solar + storage system is made up of 1,300 second-life EV batteries
Photos: SCG and Rondo Energy
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Hyundai is about to launch a new electric SUV in China. With its big debut coming up, Hyundai just dropped a sneak peek, and it looks like it could be the IONIQ 4. Check it out for yourself in the video below.
Is Hyundai teasing the IONIQ 4?
We caught our first glimpse of the new EV model last month after Beijing Hyundai released a few official “spy” photos.
Despite the camouflage, you can see a few design elements, like a light bar across the front, slim LED headlights, and a closed-off grille. At first, it almost looks like a smaller version of the IONIQ 9, Hyundai’s first three-row electric SUV, but with a much sportier, shaped profile.
Beijing Hyundai released a new teaser for the upcoming electric SUV this week. The video shows “a wave of high-end operations” as the vehicle dances across the snow.
The video highlights features like real-time torque control, high-speed cornering, and the SUV’s impressive body control while driving around cones.
Hyundai’s new electric SUV is being called “OE” internally, according to The Korean Car Blog, suggesting it could be an IONIQ model.
All other Hyundai IONIQ EV models were also codenamed with an “E” internally, which is raising speculation that this could be the IONIQ 4.
Like most global OEMs, Hyundai is fighting to compete in an intense Chinese EV market, which is dominated by domestic automakers like BYD.
Hyundai opened its first overseas R&D center last year in China to spearhead its comeback. It will work with local suppliers and tech companies to develop EVs designed for Chinese buyers. The new electric SUV is expected to launch in China later this year, followed by three new energy vehicles, including EVs and EREVs.
Beijing Hyundai will release more information on April 16, with the electric SUV set to “challenge the limit of driving performance.”
What do you think of Hyundai’s new electric SUV? Is this the IONIQ 4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Charge point provider char.gy has secured a £130 million contract to install 6,000 curbside EV chargers for Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) – the UK’s largest installation of its kind.
London-based char.gy has also been awarded a 15-year contract to operate and maintain the charging network.
Installing Level 2 chargers curbside, where most drivers in the UK park, will enable more people to take advantage of cheaper charging rates while juicing up their EVs overnight. (charg.gy’s pay as you go night tariff, between midnight and 7 am, is £0.39/kWh, compared to its £0.59/kWh day tariff.)
John Lewis, chief executive of char.gy, said the project is “a huge moment for the UK and its EV ambitions. This partnership alone will empower thousands of residents to confidently make the switch to electric vehicles, knowing they have easy access to chargers.”
Brighton and Hove City Council is among the first to tap into the government’s Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, designed to help English local authorities roll out charging solutions for residents without off-street parking. Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood said making EV charging as accessible as possible is “crucial to making the switch to electric a success.”
The UK now has over 75,000 public EV chargers, according to the Department for Transport—and it looks like the country’s on pace to hit its 2030 target. Back in December, the National Audit Office said the rollout is “on track” to meet the DfT’s estimate that at least 300,000 chargers will be needed by the end of the decade.
Read more: Meet the UK’s largest solar + storage EV charging ‘Superhub’
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