Gigafactory to be biggest building on Earth? Tesla buys additional 1,200 acres

[Recursion]

Source: Treehugger.com

Tesla's Gigafactory, which is currently under construction in Nevada, is truly deserving of its giga prefix. The goal is to make as much battery pack capacity in that single factory in 2020 (50 gigawatt-hour, enough for 500,000 EVs per year) as the whole world was making last year. The original plan called for a 10 million square-foot building, but made in a modular way so that once the first part is done, it can be operated as a pilot plant while the rest is finished and ramps up.

Well, apparently 10 million sq-ft isn't giga enough for Elon Musk. This is not confirmed from the company yet, but at a presentation about the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, Dean Haymore, from Story County Commission, said that Tesla Motors has purchased an extra 1,200 acres next to the Gigafcatory, and is looking to purchase another 350 on top of that. During Haymore's presentation, he said that the original factory was supposed to be 4 "blocks" (modular parts), and the company is now intending to build 7, for a new factory size of 24 million square-foot (not quite clear how the math works out, but maybe some modules are bigger than others. If they were all the same size, going from 4 to 7 would bring the total to 17.5 million sq-ft).

...

If the Gigafactory truly ends up being 24 million square-foot, that would make it the biggest building in the world (based on footprint) according to Wikipedia. Note that the Tesla Factory in California is currently #2 on that list.

While this isn't official yet, it isn't that far fetched, since Musk mentioned the possibility of adding capacity during the company's last quarterly call. Chances are that a lot of the extra capacity would go to Tesla Energy, helping accelerate the grid's transition to renewable energy by finally solving the storage problem.

Read more: http://www.treehugger.com/cars/tesla-buys-additional-1200-acres-next-gigafactory-could-make-it-twice-big-original-plans-would-be-largest-building-earth.html

[timdog44]

1. Maybe if we do things right

Zager and Evans will not be so prophetic and the doomsaying in their song won't come to fruition. Just maybe we can work our way through all the evil.

See this from Fortune Magazine http://fortune.com/2015/07/14/tesla-cto-low-cost-batteries-change-everything/

[IHateTheGOP]

2. If Musk pulls this off he will change the history of this planet

[hunter]

3. That's a lot of lithium!

Most lithium is refined in China, which is where Tesla is sourcing it from now, but Nevada has lithium resources too.

[truthisfreedom]

5. Geothermal sites are great sources.

[Brother Buzz]

7. Bolivia is fat with lithium, and it's largely untapped

Bolivia holds about 43% of the world's lithium reserves so it would behoove the industrialists to make nice with Evo Morales because he's holding the stick.

[JDPriestly]

4. Fantaastic!!!!!!

MIT was using almost entirely solar energy for electricity including heat for a house in Massachusetts, hardly the sunniest spot in the world, way back prior to 1974. And only now is a far-sighted genius building this facility.

As another DUer said, this will truly change the world. This technology is just what our planet needs.

When we replace our roof, we will get solar one way or another. This is the way of the future. Here in California, we could provide clean electric power to our cities with some left over.

[hedgehog]

6. Tell JEB! it's a garage.

[Sunlei]

8. wow, Nevada will have to increase population to get enough workers for a '2 mile factory'complex

[NickB79]

9. How much water will this plant consume?

Not sure if New Mexico is the best place to site such a facility, if it requires copious amounts of water........

[Brother Buzz]

10. Tesla pulled the plug on New Mexico twice

First in balked on the assembly plant in Albuquerque in 2008, then it became a runner up to Nevada on the Gigafactory plant last year.

Reno has a water shortage but I suspect a lot of the copious amounts water you speak of will be recycled water, used again and again; there are some serious forward thinking minds at work on this project.

Always a bridesmaid but never a bride

[Taitertots]

11. Gigafactory = A billion square feet. Musk is ignoring prefix conventions.

24,000,000 square feet is still huge!

[Recursion]

12. Remember 30 years ago the prefix was so rare that Back to the Future pronounced it wrong?

[Zorro]

13. That is actually a valid pronunciation

and my recollection is that it was the original way to say "giga" anything.

[Taitertots]

14. I'm going to pronounce it like that from now on

"Yes, my computer has 4.21 jig-a-bytes of RAM"