Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[jeewee3000]

Don’t you dare post that solar roads video.

Guilty admission: the first time I saw that video (many many years ago, before Tesla was founded I believe) I was completely on the hype train. "Solar. Freakin'. Roadways!". Your post made me think about that for the first time in years.

 

[Paracelsus]

The Inflation Reduction Act makes this a lot more profitable. I'm continually amazed at the Tesla's foresight in that law.

I understand and appreciate your last post @Usain , although I honestly struggle with the concept of DC loyalty to anything but big business regardless of party lines out of too many years of lived experience at this point. But since we are agreeing on about 95% of everything else, could I offer the following edit to your previous post (above)?

 

[AudubonB]

If it’s huge, contiguous, very sunny, and displaces neither people nor wildlife then it’s got to be farms and ranches. Agrivoltaics?

Fair guess. NOPE! Doesn’t meet “easy to obtain” criterion, and a single 500 sq. mi. lettuce farm…..nope.

 

[Drezil]

Guilty admission: the first time I saw that video (many many years ago, before Tesla was founded I believe) I was completely on the hype train. "Solar. Freakin'. Roadways!". Your post made me think about that for the first time in years.

Sadly they will never work ..

But i still envision solar-roofed bicycleways ..

Solar-Roofed motorways are sadly not possible due to the "light-flickering" between the panels that can cause ellipse and other naughty stuff in some people.. Thats one of the reasons why there are only a few alleyways left and not more are being build (besides the fact that people regularly crash into the trees )

 

[AndrewZ]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1568105730045255680

The timeline for construction start on this made my eyebrow raise so I dug a bit, Tesla has been working on this since at least 2020 including securing a spodumene supply deal with Piedmont intended to start in late 2022

Tesla Will Have Lithium Hydroxide Refinery In Texas For Giga Austin

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence anticipated Tesla will have a lithium hydroxide refinery at the Giga Austin and will get spodumene from Piedmont Lithium.

insideevs.com

 

[AudubonB]

Don’t you dare post that solar roads video.

Viz: “And by contiguous, I also mean appropriately shaped. No spaghetti here, like covering roadways or canals, which present inefficient wiring problems, among many others”.

 

[2daMoon]

Fair guess. NOPE! Doesn’t meet “easy to obtain” criterion, and a single 500 sq. mi. lettuce farm…..nope.

Float 'em on the high seas!

Arr!

(j/k)

 

[AudubonB]

Float 'em on the high seas!

Arg!

(j/k)

Nope.
Viz: “And while I’ve not stayed at a Holiday Inn nearby, my travels have taken me to several adjacent Superchargers”.

Follow the clues, people!

 

[SmokyPeat]

Float 'em on the high seas!

Arg!

(j/k)

Or the Salton Sea perhaps?

 

[SmokyPeat]

Or other salt flats?

 

[Nocturnal]

Or the Salton Sea perhaps?

Now I'm wondering if lithium extraction of brine could have a side effect of removing salt as well. Many bodies of water are shrinking and seeing higher salinity levels. Removing said salt could actually restore the environment.

 

[NicoV]

Thank you for the needed full story. As the host for the EU Headquarters, I might think it apposite were Belgium also to act pan-continentally, and assist albeit peripherally its EU partners in deferring consumption of the wind, LNG etc. to those countries otherwise hogtied athwart the Russian gas pipelines.

Belgium is a major transport hub for LNG and piped gas for the rest of Europe. Our gas export to Germany has skyrocketed since the start of the war. E.g. in june last year we transported 0.2TWh gas imported via the LNG terminal in Zeebrugge to Germany. This year it was 24TWh: België pompt massaal gas naar Duitsland
This over 100x increase in a couple of months gave Belgium 20% market share in Germany. For context: Russia was at 55% market share in Germany before the war. So Belgium was a big factor in Germany’s ability to replenish their gas reserves since the war started.

 

[AudubonB]

Or the Salton Sea perhaps?

Chicken dinner!

That once, for a few decades, paradisaical lake now is a benighted toxic soup of ever more saline brine, has a dimension of 35 by 15 miles (525 sqmi); its lake surface now is diminished to about 350 but the horrific shoreline is, at best, covered with invasive, exotic tamarisk. The few communities remaining along its earlier shoreline are populated by ones who cannot find buyers; I’ve not performed a headcount but very, very few would not love to be bought out - or remain to watch the rate of progress of the covering of its surface with a set of floating panels.
It is well-located near to one of the great megalopolises of the nation and world, within an easy hop of high-voltage lines and also tying into a robust extant grid of same.
Such a covering would decrease the evaporation rate of the lake. PERHAPS its level might even rise, diminishing current salinity, but I make no such unverified claim.
Ownership? Guess who owns it?

(a bit more to come).

 

[3'sterly]

Fair guess. NOPE! Doesn’t meet “easy to obtain” criterion, and a single 500 sq. mi. lettuce farm…..nope.

I’m thinking on a large water storage reservoir in the southwestern US.
Reduces evaporation, installed on already converted acreage for agricultural and urban uses. Helps maintain water as the mega drought develops. Clean power near major consumption areas.
Edit. The big reveal occurred while I was typing.

 

[Gigapress]

Looks like Tesla is contemplating a Lithium refinery in Robstown, Texas:

https://assets.comptroller.texas.gov/ch313/2100/2100-robstown-tesla-app.pdf?mod=ANLink

Source: A twitter Rabbit hole:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1568236264016719872

That government form has more info.

• Lithium hydroxide but also “other types of battery materials processing, refining and manufacturing and ancillary manufacturing operations in support of Tesla’s sustainable product line.”
• New processes would use less hazardous chemicals and would create usable byproducts
• Facility could be anywhere with access to Gulf Coast shipping channel
• 162 jobs

Project description:

Tesla, Inc. is evaluating the possible development of a battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility, the first of its kind in North America, as well as facilities to support other types of battery materials processing, refining and manufacturing and ancillary manufacturing operations in support of Tesla’s sustainable product line.

Tesla will process raw ore material into a usable state for battery production. The process Tesla will use is innovative and designed to consume less hazardous reagents and create usable by- products compared to the conventional process.
The final product, battery-grade lithium hydroxide, will be packaged and shipped by truck and rail to various Tesla battery manufacturing sites supporting the necessary supply chain for large- scale and electric vehicle batteries.

Proposed improvements would include supporting infrastructure and lithium refining equipment, operation buildings, laboratory for R&D and quality controls, new access roadways, parking lots, loading docks, logistics facilities, process warehouse and maintenance buildings, utility distribution improvements including underground utility piping, structural foundations, pads, supports, electrical substations, rail spur for use exclusive to this project, cooling towers, fire prevention equipment, safety equipment, stormwater management facilities, waste management facilities, and wastewater treatment infrastructure.

If this site is chosen, early construction could begin in the fourth quarter of 2022. The project will reach commercial operations by the fourth quarter of 2024.

Project suitability:

Tesla is still evaluating the feasibility of this project; only very preliminary development activities have begun. No engineering, procurement or construction contracts specific to the proposed location have been negotiated or signed. No regulatory permit applications have been obtained. No public announcements of a definitive intent to construct the Project have been made. Only agreements pertaining to preliminary design and engineering work and the development of other technical studies and estimates have been entered into which is necessary for purposes of determining whether the Project is technically viable and can be cost-competitive in the global marketplace.

This project could be located anywhere with access to the Gulf Coast shipping channel. Currently, the applicant is evaluating a competing site in Louisiana as an alternative for the investment associated with this project.

In summary, the ultimate determination to deploy capital to an investment pursuit depends on the project economics. In the case of the investment on this proposed project in Texas, the decision will be based on a number of commercial and financial considerations, including the ability to obtain relief regarding local property taxes. Obtaining the Chapter 313 value limitation is a necessary part of the economic analysis and a determining factor for investment in Texas. The domestic and global industrial gas market is very competitive. Without the Chapter 313 value limitation, siting the project in Texas is less attractive. In the current capital constrained environment, the economics of each project are challenged against each other and only the best will have a chance to happen.

Taxation in Texas is done primarily with property taxes as far as I know. This Chapter 313 appraised value proposal is basically asking the local government to grant Tesla the ability to pay less property tax for ten years.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Tax_Code_Chapter_313

The proposed site is strategically located for shipping via rail, truck and boat, as it’s right off the I-69 highway with nearby rail lines and it’s 20 miles from the city of Corpus Christi which has a port on the bay.

Robstown also is conveniently halfway between Austin and Starbase. The Nueces County Airport is just a few minutes away. It’s only for small aircraft but it might work for Elon’s jet. The Corpus Christi International Airport is a 20 minute drive away from the site.

 

[DarthPierce]

I was thinking the Nevada nuclear testing site

 

[AudubonB]

A tilapia - also exotic - still survives in the water; fifteen years ago selenium, arsenic and DDE levels in their flesh made them unsafe to consume; since then those and other contaminants - other heavy metals and pesticides - can only have increased.

Once a winter migratory bird haven, now only some shorebirds and a very, very few waterfowl winter there. Shorebird species would not be affected; one could suppose waterfowl might be positively affected by the emplacement of panels, as these never would cover 100% of any area. Regardless, both as individuals and as species, the dissuasion from feeding on lake vegetation, vertebrates or invertebrates would be a positive development.

 

[2daMoon]

Now, I said the High Seas, and the answer is the Salton Sea,
though, granted, at -230 ft elevation it is far from being a "high" sea.

Maybe a "close but no cigar" rather than "Nope" would be reasonable...

also j/k (as before)

 

[M|S|M MYP]

Guess legacy OEM has to squeeze the consumer any way they can....one of the reasons why i love Tesla cars.

 

[AudubonB]

Now, I said the High Seas, and the answer is the Salton Sea,
though, granted, at -230 ft elevation it is far from being a "high" sea.

Maybe a "close but no cigar" rather than "Nope" would be reasonable...

also j/k (as before)

No chicken for you. Not even j/kicken.