Tesla does not seem to have noticed.
The Captain
Any idea what Powin’s problems are?
The US company filed a notice last week (29 May) with state and local officials in Oregon, where it is incorporated and has its headquarters, regarding the potential cessation of business operations…
The system integrator provides BESS hardware based on its modular Powin Pod liquid-cooled 5MWh lithium-ion (Li-ion) solution in a standard 20-foot container…
Although the company raised US$200 million financing through a credit facility with influential US investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) as recently as Q3 of last year, Powin cited “unforeseen business circumstances” impacting its performance in its notice letter last week.
DB2
No but if i had to guess it would be money…
The storage business cash flow seems to be quite complicated, it’s not cash on the barrel. Powin’s US$200 million financing is peanuts compared to Tesla’s $37 billion cash horde. If interested that’s what I would research.
Another area could be production. Elon Musk calls factories “The machine that makes the machine.” Electricity is a well researched subject making it a commodity, what makes a huge difference is production efficiency.
The Captain
The five year lithium chart certainly shows much more than one month decline. Peak was Nov 2022. Steady decline since then.
California’s Salton Sea area has significant lithium deposits. Specifically, the region south of the lake, known as Lithium Valley. Processing it in Texas is a great plan. Texas is the perfect place for toxic soils, radioactive materials, heavy metals, and other pollutants rending soil unusable for generations and air polluted for miles.
1 Like
Must not “burden” the “JCs”.
This focus on EPA’s established mission will also provide predictability as EPA considers changes to regulations, thereby lowering costs for Americans and relieving the economy of potentially unnecessary bureaucratic burdens.
Steve
Yes, the lithium price peak caused many companies to begin new lithium projects. Apparently some got completed increasing availability but many got delayed or cancelled as prices declined.
On Salton Sea lithium has anyone reported a successful pilot project. DLE has much potential. Works in the lab but field results have been iffy.
Some progress. From March…
And so this whole process of direct lithium extraction goes really from the wellhead to producing lithium chloride and could be processed further of course to lithium carbonate to supply battery manufacturers. So about three years ago, we [International Battery Metals] built our first plant…
We produced over 25 tons of lithium carbonate. We ran over 8,000 cycles. So just for reference, when other companies represent some of their work and their successes and talk about successful pilots, usually they’re talking about 3-inch beaker in labs, and they are successful. But the challenge comes, and this is for every technology, probably in every industry, is when you try to scale up. And so for us being able to present in our case study that we’ve ran over 8,000 cycles on 3-foot diameter columns is very, very meaningful. Obviously there is no scaling up dilemma anymore when it comes to the technology. And in order to increase capacity, you simply add on columns.
DB2
1 Like
Interesting data (via AI)
Summary by Share (Approximate, 2024–2025)
Sector Share of Lithium Battery Demand Estimated Capacity (GWh) Electric Vehicles 80–85% 950+ Grid Storage 5–7% 50–70 Consumer Electronics 3–5% 30–40 Other Devices 2–3% 20–30
Clearly EV sales drive the lithium demand.
And the price in the previous post may not be representative of actual prices being paid overall since I would guess that the EV makers tend to sign some kind of multi year contracts to lock in supply and prices for most of their expected usage
Mike
Yes, this is common in the chemical industry and maybe many others. Customer agrees to buy from supplier. That gives supplier a basis to plan on requirements. Price may be specified but often contains links to market prices etc.
Price charted is the spot price. Contract price might include a discount often for volume.
Lithium’s major advantage is light weight and energy density. Grid storage can use other cheaper materials.