Tesla Gigafactory

[deckofficer]

Also the incandescent concentrates a beam that is 4' diameter on the far wall whereas the LED is diffused as a flood. It is a lot of lumens for such a small light and can double as a hand warmer.

 

[krla]

update and new pictures via TransportEvolved
Including a huge panaorama pic

https://transportevolved.com/2015/0...no-show-gigafactory-frame-60-percent-complete

 

[chickensevil]

From the same site there is a link to a *much* bigger photo:

https://d290b3p3ki7y5s.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/giga4panorama.jpg
(full image size: 30.5MB)

(smaller version shown here)

Now what is interesting is the added pad to the right. That is a fresh pad and I am going to speculate that this is where they might be planning for a solar farm (They wouldn't have likely needed to flatten the ground if they were going to do wind here). The other speculation is maybe setting up for either a geothermal plant, or possibly this is where the rail connection will come in.

Something else I never noticed previously is how massive the main pad really is for what they cleared and flattened out. It stretches all the way to the left where most of the construction/excavator/trucks are across and then up and beyond the top right hand corner of the structure. They have also continued to square this area off as shown by the freshly moved "dark" dirt in the bottom right of the pad. So I think this throws off our theories about how they are going to do their multi-phase building of additional structures and such. Since it could be that the entire stucture we see right now will be fully just the first module and they are going to be adding much... much more around that.

 

[T B]

One thing strikes me looking at the pictures: why ONE building instead of several ones?

If say a fire starts in the factory isn't it easier to contain it if the factory is split up in say 8 large buildings, instead of one HUGE?

 

[v12 to 12v]

One thing strikes me looking at the pictures: why ONE building instead of several ones?

If say a fire starts in the factory isn't it easier to contain it if the factory is split up in say 8 large buildings, instead of one HUGE?

I know one of the safety guys at Boeing Everett. It is the largest building in the world. I'll ask about it. It has much more open space than I imagine the Gigafactory will have.

 

[chickensevil]

One thing strikes me looking at the pictures: why ONE building instead of several ones?

If say a fire starts in the factory isn't it easier to contain it if the factory is split up in say 8 large buildings, instead of one HUGE?

I'm sure fire code and other safeties will be put in place to assist in case of an emergency. Why build skyscrapers? Or look at the pentagon which used to hold records for the most square footage in a building, and it is an office space so much more closed off and such than the gigafactory is likely to be. For the volume and production flow I think that is why they wanted one giant building. It comes down to cost savings.

 

[brandude87]

From the same site there is a link to a *much* bigger photo:

https://d290b3p3ki7y5s.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/giga4panorama.jpg
(full image size: 30.5MB)

(smaller version shown here)
View attachment 73417

Now what is interesting is the added pad to the right. That is a fresh pad and I am going to speculate that this is where they might be planning for a solar farm (They wouldn't have likely needed to flatten the ground if they were going to do wind here). The other speculation is maybe setting up for either a geothermal plant, or possibly this is where the rail connection will come in.

Something else I never noticed previously is how massive the main pad really is for what they cleared and flattened out. It stretches all the way to the left where most of the construction/excavator/trucks are across and then up and beyond the top right hand corner of the structure. They have also continued to square this area off as shown by the freshly moved "dark" dirt in the bottom right of the pad. So I think this throws off our theories about how they are going to do their multi-phase building of additional structures and such. Since it could be that the entire stucture we see right now will be fully just the first module and they are going to be adding much... much more around that.

That's an awesome pano, chickensevil! Comparing Tesla's rendering with an overlay of the construction site (posted earlier by my brother, username = ajax), it looks clear to me that the pad to the far right is for the wind farm pictured up on the hill in the rendering. Based on the rendering, the wind farm is just up the hill to the east of the south end of the completed Gigafactory. This is precisely where the cleared pad to the right is located in your pano. Also, just to give you an idea of the size of the Gigafactory, if you look at the overlay you can see that the current section they are building represents roughly 1/4 of the complete structure.

 

[JRP3]

Except I can't imagine leveling all those hills for a wind farm, which doesn't seem necessary, and the shape of the cleared area seems to match the outline of something in the lower right corner of the rendering, below the wind farm.

 

[aronth5]

Doubt it is either a wind farm or for solar panels. It could just be a temporary employee parking lot for phase 1 while construction moves on to phase 2.

 

[Causalien]

I tear up a bit every time I see the Gigafactory move forward. I can say to people my money bought a steel beam for TSLA, what have you done for humanity?

 

[pmadflyer]

At the top left, you can see the curve of the property boundary/road. I wonder why they took out all but one crawler crane though. Anyway, I believe the work hours/month table hinted at massive structural steel erection in late March.

 

[T B]

Now what is interesting is the added pad to the right. That is a fresh pad and I am going to speculate that this is where they might be planning for a solar farm (They wouldn't have likely needed to flatten the ground if they were going to do wind here).

SpaceX rocket landing pad!

OK, serious now: if you are going to build a hundred wind towers it is easier on flat ground. Moving cranes and equipment around. You don't do it for one, but perhaps you do it for one hundred.

 

[MassModel3]

SpaceX rocket landing pad!

OK, serious now: if you are going to build a hundred wind towers it is easier on flat ground. Moving cranes and equipment around. You don't do it for one, but perhaps you do it for one hundred.

That was my thought, too. They'd want to clear at least the land immediately around each windmill, but if you're putting a 7,000 acre windfarm, you might want to just do it all on level land to make construction and maintenance much easier.

Another possibility is that it's where they geothermal dig will take place, and there will be a structure on the land to harness that energy.

 

[Krugerrand]

Another possibility is that it's where they geothermal dig will take place, and there will be a structure on the land to harness that energy.

I think it's for the hyperloop 'terminal' for employees, although I'm not sure why they don't just make the terminal as part of and inside the GF. :tongue:

 

[Robert.Boston]

It is not normal practice in the wind industry to disturb the land between the turbines. Quite the opposite, leaving that ground intact is both cheaper and more environmentally friendly. OTOH, one does need to level the ground under large solar arrays.

 

[JRP3]

I wonder why they took out all but one crawler crane though.

I see three of them in the large panoramic shot.

 

[pmadflyer]

Let me rephrase that. I meant that in the youtube video from the 15th, there are four crawlers in the area we see the yellow and white/black/orange one in this last image. The trailers have disassembled sections from one of the latter and there is a small hydraulic crane to disassemble the last two there. It might just be me, but the last rows of columns and beams to the right of the image look to be smaller and perhaps able to be installed by a yet to be seen smaller/cheaper crane..

 

[brandude87]

Except I can't imagine leveling all those hills for a wind farm, which doesn't seem necessary, and the shape of the cleared area seems to match the outline of something in the lower right corner of the rendering, below the wind farm.

You may be right. I suppose it could just be a landing area for all the wind farm parts and equipment during construction.

 

[RobinF]

Pretty sure the area to the right is simply an area for the large amount of earth they removed from the factory area to level the ground.

 

[jerry33]

One thing strikes me looking at the pictures: why ONE building instead of several ones?

1. Contamination free environment during the entire manufacturing process. The reason Toyota went into partnership with Panasonic on the battery plant for the Prius is that Panasonic couldn't produce the quality they needed (according to The Prius That Shook the World).

2. Flexibility. What happens if one of the smaller buildings is just the wrong size down the road?