Is Green Energy REALLY green?
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California's I-80 closed in Sierra foothills due to wildfire started by Tesla semitruck
Updated Aug 19, 2024 5:09 p.m.
Toxic fumes wafted from a Tesla commercial semitruck that caught fire on Interstate 80 near Colfax on Monday afternoon, with flames spreading to nearby vegetation and officials fully closing the highway for hours. At 5 p.m., Caltrans reopened just the westbound lanes to all traffic.
Caltrans reported a complete closure of Interstate 80, between Colfax and state Route 20, shortly before 2 p.m. Westbound I-80 reopened at 4:30 p.m. while eastbound lanes remained closed, the California Highway Patrol said.
The earliest the highway is expected to fully reopen is 6 p.m., said Yvette Norman, a CHP spokesperson. “As soon as we hear any updates we’ll be sure to post it to our social media,” Norman said.
Mary Eldridge, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said the fire was started by hazardous materials within the vehicle’s lithium ion batteries and fumes from the chemicals are dangerous to anyone within a third of a mile of the fire.
“As long as the vehicle has vapor coming off it, that is extremely toxic,” Eldridge said over the phone. “We don’t want anyone driving by with open windows. We don’t want any of that getting into vehicles, so this fire has to be done before the road can reopen.”
Eldridge said the semitruck, which is an 18-wheeler and can carry up to 80,000 pounds, went off the road. She said an investigation will look into why the vehicle veered and whether the fire started before it went off the road or after.
The vegetation fire has been named the Blue Fire because it’s located near the Blue Canyon exit on I-80. The fire is small with minimal spread as aircraft were quick to dump fire retardant over the area, Eldridge said.
Updated Aug 19, 2024 5:09 p.m.
Toxic fumes wafted from a Tesla commercial semitruck that caught fire on Interstate 80 near Colfax on Monday afternoon, with flames spreading to nearby vegetation and officials fully closing the highway for hours. At 5 p.m., Caltrans reopened just the westbound lanes to all traffic.
Caltrans reported a complete closure of Interstate 80, between Colfax and state Route 20, shortly before 2 p.m. Westbound I-80 reopened at 4:30 p.m. while eastbound lanes remained closed, the California Highway Patrol said.
The earliest the highway is expected to fully reopen is 6 p.m., said Yvette Norman, a CHP spokesperson. “As soon as we hear any updates we’ll be sure to post it to our social media,” Norman said.
Mary Eldridge, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said the fire was started by hazardous materials within the vehicle’s lithium ion batteries and fumes from the chemicals are dangerous to anyone within a third of a mile of the fire.
“As long as the vehicle has vapor coming off it, that is extremely toxic,” Eldridge said over the phone. “We don’t want anyone driving by with open windows. We don’t want any of that getting into vehicles, so this fire has to be done before the road can reopen.”
Eldridge said the semitruck, which is an 18-wheeler and can carry up to 80,000 pounds, went off the road. She said an investigation will look into why the vehicle veered and whether the fire started before it went off the road or after.
The vegetation fire has been named the Blue Fire because it’s located near the Blue Canyon exit on I-80. The fire is small with minimal spread as aircraft were quick to dump fire retardant over the area, Eldridge said.
cindyj
Jedi
With the increasing threat of lithium battery fires, I am wondering what fire suppression technologies are being developed to better address this problem? It seems necessary to carry/store better extinguishers, to more quickly attack these fast, incredibly hot fires. Are home and car insurance policies addressing this increased risk?
cindyj
Jedi
Well, I have started answering my own question, above, added here in case of interest.
In June 2024, researchers from the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), part of UL Research Institutes, participated in the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) symposium, Progress with Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Safety: Engineering Solutions to Mobility and Storage Hazards. The three-day event marked the first symposium for the fire protection engineering community focused on lithium-ion battery hazards...
Full article here: Learn how FSRI supported SFPE’s lithium-ion battery symposium.
So, it looks like solutions will be coming. It is tragic how often a new technology proliferates before its dangers become apparent and only then be addressed.
In June 2024, researchers from the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), part of UL Research Institutes, participated in the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) symposium, Progress with Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Safety: Engineering Solutions to Mobility and Storage Hazards. The three-day event marked the first symposium for the fire protection engineering community focused on lithium-ion battery hazards...
Full article here: Learn how FSRI supported SFPE’s lithium-ion battery symposium.
So, it looks like solutions will be coming. It is tragic how often a new technology proliferates before its dangers become apparent and only then be addressed.
Poor Al Gore!
New movie on Gore, well on [AI] Al Gore anyway.
Trailer:
Here is the late John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel on both Gore and Revelle:
A lot of interesting news about "green energy" lately. It seems that many plans are falling apart.
Motor company Ford is to cut its workforce by 4,000 in Europe by the end of 2027, with the bulk of employees going in Germany, as it blames the decision on pressure from increased competition and weaker than expected sales of electric cars, as well as economic headwinds.
The job reductions, which will account for around 14% of the company's total European workforce, are expected to happen by the end of 2027. They will include 3,000 jobs in Germany, as well as 800 jobs in the UK.
The company said that "the global auto industry continues to be in a period of significant disruption as it shifts to electrified mobility".
The statement went on: "The transformation is particularly intense in Europe where automakers face significant competitive and economic headwinds while also tackling a misalignment between CO2 regulations and consumer demand for electrified vehicles."
Several other car makers have already slashed jobs and shut down plants. Competitors such as General Motors recently announced 1,000 global job cuts, whereas Nissan will also be axing 9,000 jobs, while reducing its global production capacity by 20%.
Other companies such as Volkswagen have also revealed that they could be closing down about three plants in Germany, with a potential loss of thousands of jobs.
Ford to cut thousands of jobs in Europe blaming poor EV sales
The job cuts, which will account for around 14% of the company's total European workforce, are expected to happen by the end of 2027.www.euronews.com
How Europe’s battery champion descended into crisis
Northvolt has been plagued by problems from incompetent management and poor safety standards to over-reliance on Chinese machinery, according to current and former workers at the cash-strapped Swedish battery maker.
Ten past and present workers of Europe’s best-funded start-up told the Financial Times its crisis had been caused by a litany of issues as it sought to do too much, too fast.
“Making batteries is hard, really hard. We tried to do almost everything at once,” said one former senior executive. “And the problems just kept piling up. I just don’t know if they can make it now.”
Founded in 2017 by two former Tesla executives and with backers including Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Siemens, Northvolt grew rapidly as it sought to become a European battery champion, with its workforce reaching 7,000 this year.
The project was meant to symbolise Europe’s comeback in a crucial technology but instead it is fighting for survival as it seeks fresh capital to continue operating, from investors reluctant to plough in much more.
The company is now at risk of turning into a tale of hubris, and of how Europe is failing to compete with big Chinese, American and other Asian rivals.
“The Chinese are being so fast on this,” said one former Northvolt chemical engineer. “They are established and they have already done it. So they’re just better. We are late to the party.”
Northvolt hired top battery-making talent from Japan and South Korea as it aimed to reduce European dependence on China by developing its own active material and finding new sources of raw materials.
Instead, employees describe a company reliant on machines — and the workers who operate them — from China and South Korea at its only factory in the northern Swedish town of Skellefteå.
One construction worker said there were hundreds of Chinese and Koreans in Skellefteå. “They stay in their own separate camp and come in every day to install and run the machines.”
All past and present Northvolt employees who spoke to the FT asked to remain anonymous, saying the company had told workers not to speak to the press.
Northvolt has pursued ambitious expansion projects despite its struggles in Skellefteå. It planned to nearly quadruple the size of the Skellefteå factory even as production languished at less than 1 per cent of capacity, and to build new gigafactories in Sweden, Germany and Canada, an active material plant and a recycling facility in Sweden, an energy storage business in Poland and an aircraft battery research unit in the US.
It has abandoned or suspended many of these projects in recent months, while executives hint that the new gigafactories are likely to be delayed. About a quarter of its Swedish workforce is to be fired.
“Even when we only had one or two projects in [Skellefteå] we could not meet output,” said the former R&D engineer. “Then they were talking about opening new factories. Shouldn’t we focus on getting the first one right? They bit off more than they could chew.”
Northvolt grew so fast in terms of employees and projects that processes were chaotic and management often incompetent, most of the workers said.
“I have never seen so many managers and directors unprepared to deal with the situation in public, and how to properly address their employees,” said a quality control worker. They added that Northvolt had “a lot of inexperienced workers in all areas — managers, engineers, production, technicians, even directors”.
A former data engineer said that despite joining “as an intern with no experience”, they had been given “massive responsibility because there was nobody else to do it . . . I was learning on the go, messing things up.”
They added that frequent restructurings meant “it felt very chaotic”, with “the goal . . . changing all the time”.
Northvolt became a darling of green investors, raking in ever larger amounts of capital including via a $2.8bn private placement in 2021, a $2.7bn convertible note in 2022 and a $5bn debt round this year backed by banks including JPMorgan, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas.
Several employees said the strong financial support had led to questionable decisions.
“Managers didn’t listen carefully to engineers,” said the construction worker. “They only had one goal: deliver the project within a fixed timeframe. They didn’t care about the budget.”
Top managers “build a model, change it and demolish it”, they said. “It does not make sense to me. It makes sense to management because they think they have a lot of money.”
A former material handler said there was a sense of creating products quickly to help raise money, describing the process as “this is going to get sent back but if we deliver it we will reach our goal and get the funding”.
BMW, a Northvolt shareholder, was the first customer to sound the alarm, pulling a $2bn contract this year and giving it to South Korea’s Samsung.
“I see a lot of defective products,” said the quality control worker. “For that reason, our average yield is low.”
Northvolt said it had “always underlined that building up a European battery cell landscape is one of the most complex tasks in industry today”.
It stressed that as “the most advanced European battery manufacturer” it was “pioneering in all different fields at the same time”. It said a recent strategic review would “further increase focus on cell production”, and that it had strengthened its management team. “We clearly see positive developments, and will continue to improve,” it added.
Northvolt is now fighting for its life. After struggling to raise billions in fresh equity it has scaled back its demand in recent weeks to about €200mn, according to Swedish and other news reports, in a push that has taken on added urgency as it deals with jittery investors. A subsidiary that was meant to build out the Skellefteå factory, Northvolt Ett Expansion, declared bankruptcy last week.
The business backdrop is also bleak. Electric vehicle sales in Europe have slowed and manufacturers including Volvo Cars and VW have scaled back their ambitions, something insiders say is not helping it convince investors.
“You had these Swedes . . . selling what they called the greenest batteries on earth, using this fact they had cheap hydropower as a massive selling point,” said one large European automotive shareholder, who is not invested in Northvolt. “But it never made sense to build it in Sweden. They don’t have the people, the skills, and they got too much money, too fast, and wanted to do everything at once. It was always going to be a disaster.”
A person close to Northvolt said the problems at Skellefteå were typical for a new factory, but that unlike large industrial groups the Swedish start-up lacked a wider organisation to fall back on for experience and revenues.
“The biggest challenge in industry,” the person added, “is a new plant, new people, new processes, new product . . . And we had all four together.”
How Europe’s battery champion descended into crisis
Insiders say Northvolt, Europe’s best-funded start-up, has been beset by problems from the startwww.ft.com
Just as expected, eh?
And there have been many reports about entire "fields" of solar panels being destroyed by hail, for example, here:
Or people making fun of them, like here:
well, the chinese are clever, and the germs are utterly, but really utterly hysterical AND stupid. i can say this because i have a german passport... the whole eu climate activism is completly useless and destroys europe. isn't the head of the eu a german???
