Hi, what are you looking for?
World’s Largest Solar Power Carport Launched
A Deep Dive Into Tesla’s Corporate Governance Approach
Seeing Climate Solutions Clearly Through Biases & Missing Data Is Challenging
Funding Notice: Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS)
Why Automotive Outlets Keep Butchering Solar Vehicles (& Why They’re Wrong)
A 1st in the U.S., Unions Announce Deal to Build Offshore Wind Farms (Video)
Seeing Climate Solutions Clearly Through Biases & Missing Data Is Challenging
Study Finds Offshore Wind Could Drive Down Energy Costs in New England
How Spiral Welding Is Revolutionizing Wind Turbine Manufacturing
NREL Builds Out National Capability To Derisk Big Changes In Grid Infrastructure
DOE Launches $84 Million Enhanced Geothermal Energy Systems (Video)
Renewable Generation Surpassed Nuclear in the U.S. Electric Power Sector in 2021
Betting A Billion Dollars On Low-Carbon Grid Transformation Tech
Mexico’s Clean Energy Ambitions Realistic With These Renewable Energy Resources
NREL Celebrates the Powerful Women of Water Power
The Necessary Marriage Of Renewable Energy & Renewable Storage
Energy Vault Has Lawsuit Problem To Go Along With Bad Physics, CO2 Debt, & Stock Price Drop
More Bad News For Fossil Fuels: Silicon-Lithium EV Batteries Deliver Next-Level Performance
Predicting Battery Lifetimes With Machine Learning
Refining, Tesla’s Next Frontier
Betting A Billion Dollars On Low-Carbon Grid Transformation Tech
“Home of the Future” — Solar Power Home with Electric Ford F-150 Lightning Backup Power (Video)
Buzz Solutions Takes Out 50% Of Grid Inspection Image Effort & Duration
Bill Nussey of Freeing Energy Talks About His Chart-Topping New Book on Local Energy
How A Smart Electric Grid Will Power Our Future
Seeing Climate Solutions Clearly Through Biases & Missing Data Is Challenging
New Law In France: Green Roofs On All New Commercial Buildings
Why Automotive Outlets Keep Butchering Solar Vehicles (& Why They’re Wrong)
One Earth Climate Model Shows How To Cut Global Emissions
US Air Force Makes Diesel-Killing Robot Do The Heavy Lifting
BMW i3 Long-Term Review from Australia
Ford Is Making Electric Vehicles That Deliver Stuff, So Why Can’t USPS?
The Switch To Clean Fleet Fuel
Could Remittances & Overseas-Based Population Catalyze The Adoption Of Electric Vehicles In Africa? Part 1
What I’d Do With An Electric Delivery Or Work Van
BMW i3 Long-Term Review from Australia
All-Season Tires For The Tesla Model 3 To Keep Things Simple — Turned Out To Be Safe & Cheap
Bubbling/Peeling Tesla Model 3 Steering Wheel — 25,000 Mile Review Update
Tesla Service — Nothing Much To Do
Rebirth: Quick Review of the Kia EV6
BMW i3 Long-Term Review from Australia
All-Season Tires For The Tesla Model 3 To Keep Things Simple — Turned Out To Be Safe & Cheap
Bubbling/Peeling Tesla Model 3 Steering Wheel — 25,000 Mile Review Update
Tesla Service — Nothing Much To Do
Germany’s Plugin EV Share Up To 24.3%, Economic Pressures Mounting
Germany’s Plugin EV Share Up To 24.3%, Economic Pressures Mounting
UK Plugin Share 16.2%, BEVs Grow 1.66× YoY, Supplies Can’t Keep Up
Sweden Plugin EV Share At 48.2%, Kia Niro On Top
Norway’s April EV Market Share At 84%, Fleet Share At 23%
Top 20 Electric Cars In The World — March 2022 (Charts)
BMW i3 Long-Term Review from Australia
All-Season Tires For The Tesla Model 3 To Keep Things Simple — Turned Out To Be Safe & Cheap
Bubbling/Peeling Tesla Model 3 Steering Wheel — 25,000 Mile Review Update
Tesla Service — Nothing Much To Do
Rebirth: Quick Review of the Kia EV6
Tesla Q4 Shareholder Conference Call — Watch & Listen Here
Volkswagen Group — In-Depth Conference Call Highlights Company’s Focus On Transition
Bill McKibben On Unions, Tesla, & Elon Musk — CleanTechnica Interview
How To Watch & Listen To Tesla Q3 Earnings Call — Most Useful Livestream
Tesla Sales & Future of Tesla Discussion with Ride the Lightning, Starman, & EVANNEX
Recently, Tesla opened its sixth factory, Giga Texas, which is also its new global headquarters. This speaks volumes for a company that was started with the goal of creating electric vehicles. Tesla has grown enormously since its humble beginnings in 2003, and reaching six factories indicates the beginning of a new phase, one of tremendous growth on a scale that I think we have not yet seen from any company.
During Tesla’s grand opening of Giga Texas, you might have missed the information presented in the pre-show. While I was there, I didn’t notice the words on the screen — instead, I was enjoying the music and talking with Twitter friends. Thankfully, we have the replay, which you can watch here. In the pre-show, Tesla pointed out that its products are responsibly sourced. It also gave us a brief rundown of its six factories. Before we dive into the company’s factory landscape, I want to quickly explore another statistic Tesla provided that you might have missed.
Tesla stated during the event that Tesla owners avoided 8.0 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent last year. To put that into perspective, we can use the Environmental Protection Agency’s conversion table, which shows that this is equal to 19,857,644,484 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle, or 1,723,754 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year just from greenhouse gas emissions alone (based on average miles driven per year).
One thing Tesla has gotten really, really good at is building some of the world’s most efficient factories. Although CEO Elon Musk has said before that the factory is the product, one can look at the factory also as a foundation for Tesla’s next phase of growth. Your home is as good as its foundation. If it’s not stable, then neither is your home.
Tesla’s factories, the company said during the pre-show, reduce energy usage and water waste while making it possible for the company to make its own batteries, recycle them at the end of their lifespans, localize production, and make preparations for using the Tesla Semi, which will help Tesla further reduce its environmental impact.
Tesla opened the Fremont factory in 2010, just seven years after the company was founded, and here is where Tesla starting building its Model S, 3, X, and Y vehicles — although, not in that order. Tesla noted that its factory in Fremont is the area’s largest employer and provides over 17,000 jobs.
Tesla opened Gigafactory Nevada in 2016, and it’s now a high-volume plant for electric motors, batteries, and powertrains. Tesla added that the factory is committed to robotics and sustainability initiatives in local schools.
Located in Buffalo, NY, this gigafactory was opened in 2017. Here, Tesla manufactures its signature Solar Roof tiles, solar panels, and Superchargers. In 2020, Tesla donated a Solar Roof to power the local Buffalo Heritage Carousel that was worth around $150,000. According to the president of the Buffalo Heritage Carousel, Tesla’s solar technology is powering the rare and historic carousel and has turned it into a new family recreational and educational attraction. You can read more about that here.
Once described as a field of mud and nonexistent by talking heads posing as reporters, this gigafactory proved many negative predictions about Tesla wrong. Not even the Covid-19 pandemic was able to put a dent in Tesla’s success.
Giga Shanghai produces made-in-China Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and is Tesla’s first international gigafactory. It should also be noted that it was opened during the time former President Trump started a trade war with China. This is especially notable since Giga Shanghai is the first foreign-owned factory in China.
Giga Berlin was opened very recently, just this year. There were a lot of challenges thanks to so-called environmental groups that didn’t want Tesla in the area. Although the nearby coal plant consumes more water than Tesla will ever need to, the issue the environmentalists had with Tesla was over its water consumption.mHowever, Tesla prevailed and Giga Berlin is now producing made-in-Germany Model Ys and batteries. Elon Musk described this gigafactory as the gemstone of the area, of Germany, and of the world. Giga Berlin is also the largest apprenticeship employer in Brandenburg.
Giga Texas is Tesla’s sixth factory and is located in the state capital, Austin. Everything is bigger in Texas, and this is true for the factory that will manufacture Tesla’s Model Y, Cybertruck, and Semi vehicles — the factory is huge and will be even bigger as it gets built out.
This is also Tesla’s new global headquarters. This factory has 10 million square feet of floor space and spans 2,500 acres along the Colorado River. Tesla noted that its equal parts form and function, and that the western windows are made from 32-foot tall glass, which is perfect for viewing the sunset. The photo below was taken just before sunset during Tesla’s Cyber Rodeo event.
Photo by Johnna Crider, CleanTechnica.
The glass is designed to allow in the natural light throughout the day and gives beautiful views of downtown Austin. Tesla also noted that over 70,000 solar panels will provide the factory with power. As for water, Tesla’s paint booth dry filter technology is expected to save 2.7 million gallons of water annually.
Tesla is producing its first structural battery pack with 4680 cells at Giga Texas, and Tesla added that the position and weight of the battery pack in its vehicles can help to reduce rollover risk.
Tesla’s six factories are not only helping Tesla itself to grow exponentially, but these factories are reshaping the future and putting down the foundation for the transition to sustainability. Recall that Tesla’s core mission is to accelerate that transition.
Cars, batteries, giant factories, and Elon Musk aside, the work that Tesla and its employees are doing globally is critical for our world. Clean energy advocates, in my opinion, have a very good reason to celebrate here.
Johnna owns less than one share of $TSLA currently and supports Tesla's mission. She also gardens, collects interesting minerals and can be found on TikTok
#1 most loved electric vehicle, solar energy, and battery news & analysis site in the world. Support our work today!
Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.
In this article, I’m going to highlight a truly outstanding YouTube channel, “The Limiting Factor,” and in particular, a recent video summarizing the battery...
Update to "Tesla Model 3 Owner Catches Body Shop Replacing His Car Parts After Renting It On Turo (Video)"
Why is Tesla’s yoke steering wheel being touted as a safety risk but Lexus’ yoke steering wheel “kinda wonderful?” This is a question that...
Tesla’s recycled batteries have provided almost 92% of their original raw materials back to Tesla for future use, according to new information in Tesla’s...
Copyright © 2021 CleanTechnica. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by and do not necessarily represent the views of CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.