More On The Alevo Battery Story Posted Earlier -- August 21, 2017

Updates

Februry 11, 2018: there's a global race to control batteries -- and China is winning.

Chinese companies dominate the lithium-ion battery production process, which starts in Congo and ends up in a phone or electric car.

There is a world-wide race to lock up the supply chain for cobalt, which will likely be in even greater demand as electric-car production rises.

So far, China is way ahead. China is by far the biggest consumer of cobalt from Congo, the world’s biggest producer. Chinese refiners import about 94% of their cobalt from the West African nation.

“We’re realizing that the Congo is to [electric vehicles] what Saudi Arabia is to the internal combustion engine,” says Trent Mell, chief executive of exploration company First Cobalt Corp. , based in Toronto.

Chinese firms are keenly aware of Congo’s importance to electric vehicles, he says, and “trying to control the whole ecosystem…from cobalt mining to battery production.”  

Original Post

 
A short note was posted earlier today. Now, more of the story:

From PennEnergy:

A startup company is giving up plans to build boxcar-sized batteries that help power companies save energy or shift to wind and solar power.

Alevo Manufacturing Inc. informed state officials Friday that it was immediately shutting down its factory inside a massive, former Philip Morris USA cigarette plant and filing for bankruptcy protection. The company said it was terminating 245 workers Friday and laying off the remaining 45 by the end of September "due to unforeseen business circumstances."

The company had said in 2014 it projected employing up to 2,500 workers by this year at its factory in Concord, North Carolina.

Alevo hoped to sell its batteries to electric grid operators and utilities, which now have to power fossil-fuel-powered plants up and down quickly to match electricity demand. That uses more fuel than just keeping the plants steadily churning out power at consistent levels.

Instead, the company said it would liquidate its assets under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case and try to pay off its creditors.

And more:

Alevo's prospects always hinged on solving a notoriously tricky technological problem — how to make a huge, powerful battery that isn't too expensive and can take the punishment of being charged and discharged hundreds or thousands of times. So far, no company has been able to crack that formula at an attractive price.

Another obstacle to its lofty manufacturing and hiring ambitions was that electricity is regulated differently in each U.S. state, and it is not clear in many cases how utilities could make money employing Alevo's battery.

For Tesla acolytes who might have missed the key paragraph in this story, to repeat:

Alevo's prospects always hinged on solving a notoriously tricky technological problem — how to make a huge, powerful battery that isn't too expensive and can take the punishment of being charged and discharged hundreds or thousands of times. So far, no company has been able to crack that formula at an attractive price.

And again, for those wondering why wind and solar are not bringing down electric prices, from the article:

Alevo hoped to sell its batteries to electric grid operators and utilities, which now have to power fossil-fuel-powered plants up and down quickly to match electricity demand. That uses more fuel than just keeping the plants steadily churning out power at consistent levels.

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