I forbindelse med en artikkel jeg jobber med har jeg stilt Sila noen spørsmål. For REC sin del er følgende interessant:

Jeg:
I suspect you need a great amount of silane to make your special nano silicon. Will this affect the choice of location? How far have you come in the process of deciding where to put your factory?

Craig Weich, VP Sila Nano:
"Sila Nano has started the site selection process within North America, with plans to announce a location by the end of the year."

Merk: Craig benekter ikke at de trenger masse silan, men omgår sen delen av spørsmålet. Jeg vil anta at dersom de ikke trenger silan, ville han i større grad avkreftet dette.

At han snakker om Nord-Amerika og ikke USA kan likevel indikere at de har øynene åpne for Canada(?). Jeg aner ikke om det er noe der oppe som kan brukes til dette, men jeg vil ikke stå hardnakket på at det MÅ være REC og Moses Lake som er svaret her. Det får andre som kan mer om det tekniske enn jeg selv gruble videre på. Men det vil ikke overraske meg, jeg er bare litt skuffet over at vi må vente til resten av året før det annonseres.

Jeg:
I read somewhere that you will start to build your factory in 2024. How long does it take to build such a high-tech facility, in other words: when do you see your factory up and running?

Craig:
"Sila Nano aims to start production at the new plant in 2024, and powering cars and hundreds of millions of consumer devices by 2025."

Jeg:
This time last year you believed that your first batteries would be in consumer electronics in the beginning of 2021, and in EVs in 2024/25. I suspect this has changed, what are your new estimations?

Craig:
"These estimates are still accurate."

Spennende! Det betyr at silisiumbatteriene deres er på vei inn i konsumentmarkedet nå!

Så noe kult, på spørsmål om faststoffbatterier:

Jeg:
If and when solid state batteries can be mass produced, do you see a future where the two live side by side – or will one technology outcompete the other?

Craig:
"My co-founder and I addressed this exact topic in our recent white paper. Li-ion won't be everything, but Li-ion will be everything that matters. Non Li-ion chemistries may find niche applications, but will remain small on a relative scale to Li-ion technology.

That said, for the sake of the EV revolution we would be glad to be wrong about solid state. The world needs better batteries and if enterprising scientists and engineers find ways to overcome these challenges, drive the price to $50/kWh, and transform the energy sector, we'd gladly cheer on their technical success while competing in the marketplace."

Craig sier videre at verden vil trenge 30.000 GWh batterikapasitet innen 2050.

Og dessuten:

"To reach this 30,000 GWh of capacity using today’s components, we can calculate the needs of each component by weight per year:

-With graphite anodes, we would need about 23 million tons of graphite annually to support this capacity

-With silicon anodes, however, you would need 5-10X less (2-4 million tons of silicon annually) due to the dramatically higher capacity per kilogram of silicon compared to graphite

-With NCA or NCM cathodes, assuming 90% nickel and 5% cobalt, the industry would require 1.2 million tons of cobalt and 22 million tons of nickel

-These numbers are very large and should cause us to commit to a path that can achieve this scale with the environment and sustainability in mind today, using re-use wherever we can and recycling where that’s not possible.
For reference we should also keep in mind that we extract roughly 12 million tons of oil, 21 million tons of coal, and 7 million tons of natural gas from the earth every single day while the battery materials numbers here are on an annual basis"

Meg:
Where do you see batteries in 5 years time? 10?

Craig
"The future of energy storage, advanced Li-ion batteries, and electric vehicles is incredibly bright.
There are tremendous opportunities for innovation in the chemistry and materials space to make
substantially better Li-ion components that can drop into existing factories and the many factories being built around the world in the next decade. The reality of a Li-ion battery capable of simultaneously delivering $50/kWh costs, fast charging, 10,000+ cycles, 1M+ miles, a 30 year calendar life, all while being made with abundant raw materials found all around the world and recycled is within reach in the next 10 years. The demand for such a battery would reach unprecedented levels, as high as 30,000 GWh annually by mid century, as the world transforms from a fossil fuel based economy to an entirely solar and wind powered one. "

Resten av spørsmålene og svarene holder jeg for meg selv til artikkelen kommer ut.