Thanks Joe for keeping the world updated on the Texas Giga factory! Your updates are fascinating to me to watch, and I look forward to them. Sorry I can not give you a thumbs up on my TV, but have to look up a show on my computer to give a thumbs up. I try to do this once in a while.
Thanks for mentioning that with the newly published FSD 13 notes, we learn that the Cortex supercomputer is already in use for real training purposes. If they can do that using a tap off the factory power lines (maybe mostly during weekends), just imagine what it can do when all bays are in place and full power comes on-line probably by next spring. By then we will see all 6 cooling towers running full speed.
Thanks Joe *Sort by Newest First or Top Comments if only the first few lines are visible* 0:37. Tesla Road, east. Cybercab. Narrower rear track. Must be 3" or 4" 75mm or 100mm to be so noticeable. Not so noticeable is the rear wheels are a larger diameter 2” or 3”, 50mm or 75mm. See 0:43. 1:32. Westside, Tunnel Project. Posts mounted on the retaining wall have been painted. Right. Second pad concrete placed, this time on the piers. Curious method of construction. Steel frame painted. Retaining wall curving north and south suggests vehicles will be directed each way onto a road passing very close in front of the retaining walls. 3:47. Recycling yard. Truck driving up onto the weigh-bridge/scale-house. 4:20. Electric Avenue. Far right. Temporary traffic lights. Possibly for the Cybercab test drives. I haven’t noted them before. 5:28. Parking Garage, south of. Green box on the black base is a generator as identified by Bill Wheeler. 9:39. Southend, west. 6 excavators. All in one place for a service etc. Same at the Tunnel Project, bottom right 16:13. 9:58. Southend, west. Internal vehicle passageway. Stair and suspended scaffold have been removed. 10:09. GA, apron. Delivery of steel beams. 10:51. GA, EOL exit. New loading docks. Out of practice. Been at this for a few weeks. 13:20. Westside, storage. Stamping press components. More components wrapped in the tan plastic. Evidently a change of plans. 13:55. Westside, storage. Magnetron transformer count, 105. Plus 3 on trailers below, also by Magnetron. The numbers wax and wane, but where they go to is a mystery. 16:01. Westside, Tunnel Project. Bottom left. 8 piers. Suspect this has been abandoned and replaced by the structure centre left. 18:08. Battery, west. New entrance. Rebar starters for a retaining wall. Footing for possibly a ramp and raised garden bed. Footings not parallel to the paving edge. Mirror image south of the large door opening. There is a permit for a new entrance in this location. GA - 22A Building Entry. 20:00. Northend, casting storage. Bottom left. Cybertruck front castings. Lots of crosses on the biscuit of the untrimmed castings. 21:24. Casting, roof. Heat from the flue gases visible. 22:29. Casting, east. Baghouse to the left, heat-exchanger and flue structure to the right. My speculative outline of the process is as follows. 3 flues/ducts exit the Casting building, see 21:55. Rusty duct to the right may be relatively cool, as it bypasses the heat-exchangers. 2 bright steel ducts would be hot flue gas from the furnaces and pass horizontally through the heat-exchangers (the emerald shaped components on the first deck) before turning south on the way to the top of the baghouse filtration system. Cleaner and relatively cooler gas exits the base of the baghouse before being fan forced upwards through the heat-exhangers, the expansion chambers, collected in the hood, and then up through the flue. 23:39. Temporary switchyard site. Maths 101. Adding and subtracting. 26:24. Tesla Road, east. Earthworks. Possibly another holding bay for vehicles awaiting directions or a time-slot. Similar on Cyber Circle at 4:55. 28:06. Cathode, north of. Trailer load of demolished floor sections. Works inside the building.
Joe have you noticed less Tesla employees present this week. Some news outlets are saying employees are staying home because they are not need since production needs to slow down.
Once that tunnel is finished up it'll be cool seeing those vehicles pop out while I'm headed South. From the seat of the 🚛 I can see the whole exit ramp area.
When looking at the large steel tanks near the cooling plant, one way to save a lot of money on your electric bill is to store chilled water in the tanks, and then use it when the cost of electricity is much higher in the "Peak" hours. So if you fill the tank with 0.5 liter balls of water, they will float to the top when frozen, and they can then take water from the top and chill it to about 20F and cool it during the night, with very low cost power. Then in the daytime, when the cost of electricity is at a peak, they can take cold water from the bottom of the tank at say 40F and then send it to the chilled water coils, and cool the air in the room. Then send back 60F water to the top of the tank, it will get cooled by the ice filled balls of water, then come out the bottom at 40F or so. Once the whole tank is at 55F, then you must change to another source for chilled water. There is a library in Ontario CA that has the same system installed back in 2004. Much smaller. Only about 10 ton capacity compressors. Where I live in Portland Oregon, I signed up for a time of day rate program, where I pay $0.35 per KW between 5 pm and 9 pm on weekdays, and only $0.08 per KW 9 pm to 7 am and all weekends. Weekdays are the normal rate that my neighbors pay $0.15 per KW between 7 am and 5 pm. I would guess that Texas might have a similar rate plan, and Tesla is smart enough to take advantage of it. Tesla is also able to chill the water in the cooling tower to 50F on some cooler nights, like this upcoming winter, and then use the water tower chilled water to directly cool the chilled water loop. This is with the plate type heat exchangers they showed in the pictures. Chilled water loops in most buildings where set at 40F or 45F back in the 1970's before they considered energy savings. Now they can be set at 55F on a somewhat warm day (85F outside) and then chill the water a bit more (at more expense) on a warm day (say it is 92F outside) then chill the water to 50F when it is really hot outside, and you need the maximum amount of cooling that day, say it is over 100F. South Coast Plaza, back in 1980, they put in a new parking garage with huge tanks under it. Think 500,000 gallons! Yes several of them. At night, they chilled the water to 40F, and in the daytime they would run only 1 chiller until the prime cost of power started at noon. Then shut off all the chillers until about 7 pm, when the cost of electricity became reasonable again. (Now prime cost electricity is 4 pm to 9 pm in 2022 and later). Then run all their chillers between 9 pm and 6 am, to cool all of that water to 40F overnight, when the cooling tower can put out the coolest possible water, and run the plant with the lowest number of watts per ton of cooling capacity. And the cost of electricity was lowest at night too! It saved South Coast Plaza many thousands of dollars per year in reduced electric cost and off peak energy use. South Coast Plaza is a huge shopping mall in Costa Mesa CA, about 10 miles south of Disneyland.
Trucks will enter on the south east side where the bottom black window trim is over the opening between the factory and chilling plant, then exit on the norte east side. Try to get your drone low and look into the opening on the south east.
Aah! Your videos some time ago showed a path from the Boring Tunnel portal area inside the building out to the east side. Perhaps it is possible for a large truck to drive in the east side, have the steel coils picked up by a gantry crane and delivered to a storage rack, and the truck drives out the west side. So, Joe had shown evidence in support of the concept of a path through the building for steel coil delivery directly into the building. Passing through the building avoids space lost to turning area.
The number of transformers suggest that the new megapack site will 3X the size as the existing one. The footing closest to the highway by the tunnel exit looks like it is a mount for a large LED Tesla sign, Las Vegas Style.
Has Tesla corrected the violations such as the plant’s giant casting furnace door wouldn’t shut for months in 2022. When a TCEQ regulator arrived for a site visit in early fall 2022, Tesla employees used an “elaborate ruse” to hide the violations, lowering the fuel going into the furnace and temporarily closing the door.
Business Insider claimed Tesla told Cybertruck workers do not have to come to work for 3 days, Dec 3-5. Can you verify that based on your observation on Giga Texas? Thank you for your consistent drone flight reports.
Thanks for another great video, Joe!! Have you heard any updates on 4680 progress and run rates? There has been very little info from the Tesla community as a whole regarding the 4680s. Slightly concerning, in my opinion.
Could that triangular concrete footing we part of a new personnel entrance to the 4680 cell (and pack?) plant. Is it an entrance between the cell and pack secrions???
I have seen rental chillers on the site of the Cathode building last summer. I think they plan on expanding the chiller plant so no portable chillers will be needed in summer of 2025. I would guess they are making space for 4 additional large fans for cooling towers. This should double the cooling capacity. This will allow more cooling capacity in both buildings. So they may be clearing for a cement foundation to install two new chillers, maybe in the 500 ton capacity per unit, maybe as many as 6 more chillers? Yes they can have 4 each 750 ton water towers, then install chillers with different capacity, up to the total limit of those cooling towers. Going over 500 tons of cooling capacity per chiller, the start up amperage is much greater, so that is why I am going to guess they will use a chiller less than 500 tons each. It is also possible to install 4 X 750 ton chillers and then install a little more capacity in chillers than the cooling towers are rated at. This is because running a chiller at 85% of it's rated capacity can save a lot of electricity, and also they can have spare chiller capacity even if the tower is a bit undersized. So have 6 chillers when you plan to only run 5 at any given time, with the 6th as back up.
The tunnel portal works seem to be taking a long time to complete. A couple of wing walls and some blacktop! I assume those must be installations adjacent to the portal for the fire suppression and emergency systems still to install.
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn All the tunnelling is done. But still interesting to see it put into use. So much for the July opening date. It will be interesting to see if the vehicles have drivers or are fully autonomous on opening. I'm sure they will be in time. TBC are still making their claims, and wherever they do I will review the veracity of them. 340 days and counting!
Now that cortex node is active, I am surprised they are not supplying data from the workers around the factory since I expect Tesla to use some of the data for Teslabot.
Castings are being used as energy storage. Inventory will be reduced during high energy cost times such as cold weather or high useage required by computer.
Had no idea the Boring Co work was gonna take forever. Getting a slow rep by the day, as the whole point of the company was fast to construct, therefore inexpensive, tunnels.
The tunnel was relatively fast, except for the defective floor panels. Building out the exit is typical construction time frames. I think there was a pause for the gas pipeline to be placed under the tunnel.
Thanks Joe! @ 2:12 Megapacks/Substation expansion.... Joe, those documents you are referring to... Are they from 9/17/24? The 9/17 document refers to adding 2 additional substation bays and 2 large transformers, T4 and T5 to the substation. T4 and T5 will be very similar to the transformer now being installed @ 24:24. This will be a very large project! The future Megapack site is likely @ 2:14 The future substation expansion is likely to be @ 24:59 just east of the existing substation in the area of the pond, road, and power lines. Which will have to be relocated or removed. Two separate projects.
I'm not sure what you are describing, David, ... and do not think they are going to build another substation on the east side of the existing one. There just is no room there. The road would have to be moved. Under that pond are major water duct works. Are you sure the two new transformers are going to be like the three that are now in place inside the substation? Could they instead be part of the megapack interface structures, similar to the existing one? But needing two, because the new megapacks are twice the size of the existing one? They could put those in the side spaces that they are clearing and leveling now, connected underground through conduit to a HV line. Also, I am thinking, for substation changes, that would be EPCOT needing permits, while for megapacks, that would be Tesla permits.
@@WarrenLacefield No The Bluebonnet document is clear..... "Approve construction purchase requisitions for a substation expansion project to add substation transformers (T4-T5) at Hornsby Substation" Note: 'Hornsby substation'. T1 and T2 are the original transformers. T3 is now being added. T4 and T5 would be a future addition. Location.... While the document is clear that they are adding 2 more transformers.... The location is speculation on my part. Yes, that location would require major rework of the area. But can you thank of another possible location for 2 new substation bays? Megapacks... The existing installation and new installation serve two different purposes and, thus, the new installation may not need a substation and HV connection. The connection may be medium voltage to the substation Mega-vault. As seen by the new duct-banks @ 23:50 Simply connect to the switchgear in a new building on top of the vault. The voltage would be the same... 34.5 kV.
@@WarrenLacefield One more point.... I've been saying for some time that I have my doubts that they can get 500 MW from the existing configuration, even with a third transformer. Adding 2 more transformers and thus, 2 substation bays would allow them to tap the 2nd 345 kV transmission line circuit. Which is now not being used.
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn OK. I believe I stand thoroughly corrected. Then looks like there will be a major substation expansion, as you said, possibly to the north as suggested by BenGuthrie49. But as you actually first pointed out to me and I've also come to agree with, the current substation is part of the grid line between two substations (say, to the right and left), both of which are part of the grid. Power is only being drawn now from one direction. The other is for maintenance or backup. But if instead of an edge/loop between nodes, there was simply two taps on the grid, one from the right and the other from the left, there would be two separate HV feeds at 345kV, one for the factory MV at 29.8kV (from the right) and one for Cortex MV at 34.5kV (from the left). I guess that would not allow for full backup of one or both feeds in case of power failure. Megapacks would do that briefly. But the substation would need two more transformers, one to backup the other for maintenance to serve what would be the 2nd HV feed. Does that make sense? (Maybe not .. that still leaves one extra transformer?) I'm not sure about the new megapacks maybe only supporting the Cortex MV. Don't the existing megapacks support the factory HV feed?
Hi Joe , Maybe you know the answer ,What about the new sandwichpannel they use for the Cybercab,How does ite work? is it presseble or is it the BMW way of forming like the first I3 ?
Update is cosmetic. Front and rear casting dies are changed after ~450,000 presses with changes as to the flow, volume and efficiency of each variant likely being made. The is one of the jobs of the die shop just north of GT, they will likely also renew and perhaps improve the dies used in stamping.
A car driving itself - ho hum. CyberCab surely has V13.2 or later FSD. While we appreciate Tesla's safety and performance testing of all products, surely we are at the stage of finding it funny that Tesla is testing FSD on its own property when it has a fleet of tens of thousands testing on public roads.
They can't run the presses 'live' so why waste money simmering the casting alloy when you can cast them and leave outside to cool... sometimes on racks. Must save a fortune on energy. Massive amount.
@@saberianamir Yep. It's like 23s or so at full tilt so either pay to simmer the alloy which would cost a shedload or knock them out 13 to the dozen and put them in the 'larder' so as to say, for later.
@ 4:39 and 4:55 Guess these guys just can't stand the place being neat and organized. Castings all over creation, even though they have designated storage locations. And.... These castings can be placed in racks. Which would save space.
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn yes, it seems strange since they spent a fortune on a tunnel to save maybe 1 minute per vehicle, yet they take so much time with the castings. 2 per vehicle, which is 4 round trips with a forklift, likely 4 or 5 minutes per trip. They should at least use racks for al the trimmed ones to save trips, and maybe design a rack for the untrimmed ones.
I watch every video on this factory… I’m just blown away every time
Thanks Joe for keeping the world updated on the Texas Giga factory! Your updates are fascinating to me to watch, and I look forward to them. Sorry I can not give you a thumbs up on my TV, but have to look up a show on my computer to give a thumbs up. I try to do this once in a while.
Thanks for mentioning that with the newly published FSD 13 notes, we learn that the Cortex supercomputer is already in use for real training purposes. If they can do that using a tap off the factory power lines (maybe mostly during weekends), just imagine what it can do when all bays are in place and full power comes on-line probably by next spring. By then we will see all 6 cooling towers running full speed.
Thanks Joe
*Sort by Newest First or Top Comments if only the first few lines are visible*
0:37. Tesla Road, east. Cybercab. Narrower rear track. Must be 3" or 4" 75mm or 100mm to be so noticeable.
Not so noticeable is the rear wheels are a larger diameter 2” or 3”, 50mm or 75mm. See 0:43.
1:32. Westside, Tunnel Project. Posts mounted on the retaining wall have been painted.
Right. Second pad concrete placed, this time on the piers. Curious method of construction. Steel frame painted.
Retaining wall curving north and south suggests vehicles will be directed each way onto a road passing very close in front of the retaining walls.
3:47. Recycling yard. Truck driving up onto the weigh-bridge/scale-house.
4:20. Electric Avenue. Far right. Temporary traffic lights. Possibly for the Cybercab test drives. I haven’t noted them before.
5:28. Parking Garage, south of. Green box on the black base is a generator as identified by Bill Wheeler.
9:39. Southend, west. 6 excavators. All in one place for a service etc. Same at the Tunnel Project, bottom right 16:13.
9:58. Southend, west. Internal vehicle passageway. Stair and suspended scaffold have been removed.
10:09. GA, apron. Delivery of steel beams.
10:51. GA, EOL exit. New loading docks. Out of practice. Been at this for a few weeks.
13:20. Westside, storage. Stamping press components. More components wrapped in the tan plastic. Evidently a change of plans.
13:55. Westside, storage. Magnetron transformer count, 105. Plus 3 on trailers below, also by Magnetron. The numbers wax and wane, but where they go to is a mystery.
16:01. Westside, Tunnel Project. Bottom left. 8 piers. Suspect this has been abandoned and replaced by the structure centre left.
18:08. Battery, west. New entrance. Rebar starters for a retaining wall. Footing for possibly a ramp and raised garden bed. Footings not parallel to the paving edge. Mirror image south of the large door opening.
There is a permit for a new entrance in this location. GA - 22A Building Entry.
20:00. Northend, casting storage. Bottom left. Cybertruck front castings. Lots of crosses on the biscuit of the untrimmed castings.
21:24. Casting, roof. Heat from the flue gases visible.
22:29. Casting, east. Baghouse to the left, heat-exchanger and flue structure to the right.
My speculative outline of the process is as follows. 3 flues/ducts exit the Casting building, see 21:55.
Rusty duct to the right may be relatively cool, as it bypasses the heat-exchangers.
2 bright steel ducts would be hot flue gas from the furnaces and pass horizontally through the heat-exchangers (the emerald shaped components on the first deck) before turning south on the way to the top of the baghouse filtration system. Cleaner and relatively cooler gas exits the base of the baghouse before being fan forced upwards through the heat-exhangers, the expansion chambers, collected in the hood, and then up through the flue.
23:39. Temporary switchyard site. Maths 101. Adding and subtracting.
26:24. Tesla Road, east. Earthworks. Possibly another holding bay for vehicles awaiting directions or a time-slot. Similar on Cyber Circle at 4:55.
28:06. Cathode, north of. Trailer load of demolished floor sections. Works inside the building.
The cybercab looks super smooth and sleek from aerial views!
Thanks Joe.
Thanks Joe!
Joe have you noticed less Tesla employees present this week. Some news outlets are saying employees are staying home because they are not need since production needs to slow down.
20:10 Cybercab pulling into parking lot.
Merci👍👍👍
Once that tunnel is finished up it'll be cool seeing those vehicles pop out while I'm headed South. From the seat of the 🚛 I can see the whole exit ramp area.
@Joe That green item near the parkade look like a generator with an exhaust and gas vent stacks
Yep, 5:17 (Bottom) is a generator to provide backup power to the parking garage. The electrical panel is next to it.
Yes. Green is the generator itself. The black bottom is the diesel fuel tank.
When looking at the large steel tanks near the cooling plant, one way to save a lot of money on your electric bill is to store chilled water in the tanks, and then use it when the cost of electricity is much higher in the "Peak" hours. So if you fill the tank with 0.5 liter balls of water, they will float to the top when frozen, and they can then take water from the top and chill it to about 20F and cool it during the night, with very low cost power. Then in the daytime, when the cost of electricity is at a peak, they can take cold water from the bottom of the tank at say 40F and then send it to the chilled water coils, and cool the air in the room. Then send back 60F water to the top of the tank, it will get cooled by the ice filled balls of water, then come out the bottom at 40F or so. Once the whole tank is at 55F, then you must change to another source for chilled water.
There is a library in Ontario CA that has the same system installed back in 2004. Much smaller. Only about 10 ton capacity compressors.
Where I live in Portland Oregon, I signed up for a time of day rate program, where I pay $0.35 per KW between 5 pm and 9 pm on weekdays, and only $0.08 per KW 9 pm to 7 am and all weekends. Weekdays are the normal rate that my neighbors pay $0.15 per KW between 7 am and 5 pm. I would guess that Texas might have a similar rate plan, and Tesla is smart enough to take advantage of it.
Tesla is also able to chill the water in the cooling tower to 50F on some cooler nights, like this upcoming winter, and then use the water tower chilled water to directly cool the chilled water loop. This is with the plate type heat exchangers they showed in the pictures.
Chilled water loops in most buildings where set at 40F or 45F back in the 1970's before they considered energy savings. Now they can be set at 55F on a somewhat warm day (85F outside) and then chill the water a bit more (at more expense) on a warm day (say it is 92F outside) then chill the water to 50F when it is really hot outside, and you need the maximum amount of cooling that day, say it is over 100F.
South Coast Plaza, back in 1980, they put in a new parking garage with huge tanks under it. Think 500,000 gallons! Yes several of them. At night, they chilled the water to 40F, and in the daytime they would run only 1 chiller until the prime cost of power started at noon. Then shut off all the chillers until about 7 pm, when the cost of electricity became reasonable again. (Now prime cost electricity is 4 pm to 9 pm in 2022 and later). Then run all their chillers between 9 pm and 6 am, to cool all of that water to 40F overnight, when the cooling tower can put out the coolest possible water, and run the plant with the lowest number of watts per ton of cooling capacity. And the cost of electricity was lowest at night too!
It saved South Coast Plaza many thousands of dollars per year in reduced electric cost and off peak energy use. South Coast Plaza is a huge shopping mall in Costa Mesa CA, about 10 miles south of Disneyland.
All your videos are great and this one was particularly well done and edited. Appreciate your dedication and mad drone skills ;>)
I count 85 transformers in the south batch and 105 in the north batch including the 3 on trucks - they must be heavy at one per truck.
Thank you for the latest update, Joe please remember kindness is always free the Highlander😊
Trucks will enter on the south east side where the bottom black window trim is over the opening between the factory and chilling plant, then exit on the norte east side. Try to get your drone low and look into the opening on the south east.
Aah! Your videos some time ago showed a path from the Boring Tunnel portal area inside the building out to the east side. Perhaps it is possible for a large truck to drive in the east side, have the steel coils picked up by a gantry crane and delivered to a storage rack, and the truck drives out the west side. So, Joe had shown evidence in support of the concept of a path through the building for steel coil delivery directly into the building. Passing through the building avoids space lost to turning area.
Stamping 2 takes deliveries at the south. This east-west passageway would be the access to Stamping 2, plus general access through the southend.
The number of transformers suggest that the new megapack site will 3X the size as the existing one. The footing closest to the highway by the tunnel exit looks like it is a mount for a large LED Tesla sign, Las Vegas Style.
Good vid
Has Tesla corrected the violations such as the plant’s giant casting furnace door wouldn’t shut for months in 2022. When a TCEQ regulator arrived for a site visit in early fall 2022, Tesla employees used an “elaborate ruse” to hide the violations, lowering the fuel going into the furnace and temporarily closing the door.
10:10 Trivial but that equipment yard fence needs correction, causing needless wobble for traffic.
Business Insider claimed Tesla told Cybertruck workers do not have to come to work for 3 days, Dec 3-5. Can you verify that based on your observation on Giga Texas? Thank you for your consistent drone flight reports.
Thanks for another great video, Joe!! Have you heard any updates on 4680 progress and run rates? There has been very little info from the Tesla community as a whole regarding the 4680s. Slightly concerning, in my opinion.
Could that triangular concrete footing we part of a new personnel entrance to the 4680 cell (and pack?) plant. Is it an entrance between the cell and pack secrions???
It looks like all 14 chiller fans are going to fit in the space under construction beside the other chiller fans by the cathode building.
I have seen rental chillers on the site of the Cathode building last summer. I think they plan on expanding the chiller plant so no portable chillers will be needed in summer of 2025. I would guess they are making space for 4 additional large fans for cooling towers. This should double the cooling capacity. This will allow more cooling capacity in both buildings. So they may be clearing for a cement foundation to install two new chillers, maybe in the 500 ton capacity per unit, maybe as many as 6 more chillers? Yes they can have 4 each 750 ton water towers, then install chillers with different capacity, up to the total limit of those cooling towers.
Going over 500 tons of cooling capacity per chiller, the start up amperage is much greater, so that is why I am going to guess they will use a chiller less than 500 tons each.
It is also possible to install 4 X 750 ton chillers and then install a little more capacity in chillers than the cooling towers are rated at. This is because running a chiller at 85% of it's rated capacity can save a lot of electricity, and also they can have spare chiller capacity even if the tower is a bit undersized. So have 6 chillers when you plan to only run 5 at any given time, with the 6th as back up.
The tunnel portal works seem to be taking a long time to complete.
A couple of wing walls and some blacktop!
I assume those must be installations adjacent to the portal for the fire suppression and emergency systems still to install.
Glad to see that you're still following the clown show at the tunnel project. So much for their 'goal' of 7 miles per day. 😊
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn All the tunnelling is done. But still interesting to see it put into use. So much for the July opening date. It will be interesting to see if the vehicles have drivers or are fully autonomous on opening. I'm sure they will be in time.
TBC are still making their claims, and wherever they do I will review the veracity of them.
340 days and counting!
Now that cortex node is active, I am surprised they are not supplying data from the workers around the factory since I expect Tesla to use some of the data for Teslabot.
Castings are being used as energy storage. Inventory will be reduced during high energy cost times such as cold weather or high useage required by computer.
Had no idea the Boring Co work was gonna take forever. Getting a slow rep by the day, as the whole point of the company was fast to construct, therefore inexpensive, tunnels.
The tunnel was relatively fast, except for the defective floor panels. Building out the exit is typical construction time frames. I think there was a pause for the gas pipeline to be placed under the tunnel.
TEXAS IS SHUTTING DOWN THIS WEEK. I THINK THEY ARE RETOOLING THE PRESSES. GOOD TIME TO CATCH SOMETHING IN PROGRESS
Thanks Joe!
@ 2:12 Megapacks/Substation expansion....
Joe, those documents you are referring to... Are they from 9/17/24?
The 9/17 document refers to adding 2 additional substation bays and 2 large transformers, T4 and T5 to the substation. T4 and T5 will be very similar to the transformer now being installed @ 24:24. This will be a very large project!
The future Megapack site is likely @ 2:14
The future substation expansion is likely to be @ 24:59 just east of the existing substation in the area of the pond, road, and power lines. Which will have to be relocated or removed.
Two separate projects.
I'm not sure what you are describing, David, ... and do not think they are going to build another substation on the east side of the existing one. There just is no room there. The road would have to be moved. Under that pond are major water duct works. Are you sure the two new transformers are going to be like the three that are now in place inside the substation? Could they instead be part of the megapack interface structures, similar to the existing one? But needing two, because the new megapacks are twice the size of the existing one? They could put those in the side spaces that they are clearing and leveling now, connected underground through conduit to a HV line. Also, I am thinking, for substation changes, that would be EPCOT needing permits, while for megapacks, that would be Tesla permits.
@@WarrenLacefield No The Bluebonnet document is clear.....
"Approve construction purchase requisitions for a substation expansion project to add substation
transformers (T4-T5) at Hornsby Substation"
Note: 'Hornsby substation'.
T1 and T2 are the original transformers.
T3 is now being added.
T4 and T5 would be a future addition.
Location.... While the document is clear that they are adding 2 more transformers.... The location is speculation on my part. Yes, that location would require major rework of the area. But can you thank of another possible location for 2 new substation bays?
Megapacks... The existing installation and new installation serve two different purposes and, thus, the new installation may not need a substation and HV connection.
The connection may be medium voltage to the substation Mega-vault. As seen by the new duct-banks @ 23:50 Simply connect to the switchgear in a new building on top of the vault. The voltage would be the same... 34.5 kV.
@@WarrenLacefield One more point....
I've been saying for some time that I have my doubts that they can get 500 MW from the existing configuration, even with a third transformer. Adding 2 more transformers and thus, 2 substation bays would allow them to tap the 2nd 345 kV transmission line circuit. Which is now not being used.
David, Bluebonnet expansion could be north of the existing substation.
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn OK. I believe I stand thoroughly corrected. Then looks like there will be a major substation expansion, as you said, possibly to the north as suggested by BenGuthrie49.
But as you actually first pointed out to me and I've also come to agree with, the current substation is part of the grid line between two substations (say, to the right and left), both of which are part of the grid. Power is only being drawn now from one direction. The other is for maintenance or backup.
But if instead of an edge/loop between nodes, there was simply two taps on the grid, one from the right and the other from the left, there would be two separate HV feeds at 345kV, one for the factory MV at 29.8kV (from the right) and one for Cortex MV at 34.5kV (from the left).
I guess that would not allow for full backup of one or both feeds in case of power failure. Megapacks would do that briefly. But the substation would need two more transformers, one to backup the other for maintenance to serve what would be the 2nd HV feed. Does that make sense? (Maybe not .. that still leaves one extra transformer?)
I'm not sure about the new megapacks maybe only supporting the Cortex MV. Don't the existing megapacks support the factory HV feed?
Hi Joe , Maybe you know the answer ,What about the new sandwichpannel they use for the Cybercab,How does ite work? is it presseble or is it the BMW way of forming like the first I3 ?
I see lots of castings. Where is all the aluminum ingots coming from?
20:57
When did they paint the TARDIS orange?
Dear Joe,
Do you have any update on DBE 4680s?
I think they are working on the teleportation of the Cybercab.
They probably want to switch a Gigapress over to a different mold so they are stockpiling the current run
Thanks for the update Joe! Something I've been wondering for quite some time now is why you don't fly over the highway?
Legal reasons and Joe is ex. USAF.
I wonder if all the casting are to keep production running while they change to the Juniper Model Y.
Update is cosmetic. Front and rear casting dies are changed after ~450,000 presses with changes as to the flow, volume and efficiency of each variant likely being made. The is one of the jobs of the die shop just north of GT, they will likely also renew and perhaps improve the dies used in stamping.
😎😎😎
A car driving itself - ho hum. CyberCab surely has V13.2 or later FSD. While we appreciate Tesla's safety and performance testing of all products, surely we are at the stage of finding it funny that Tesla is testing FSD on its own property when it has a fleet of tens of thousands testing on public roads.
Yes, guinea pig the customers. Kenneth Lay is looking for a new golf buddy.
😉
21:12 looks like a Porta, potti that was on the roof and being moved to the ground. Do my eyes deceive me?
Has production slowed lately ? Seems like the outbound lot is less busy in recent videos. (Not just joes).
I don't know, but there are two things to consider. One is the production rate, the other is the rate in which they are being hauled away.
Would it be possible for you to show where the Crayle yard for loading of trains is in relationship to gigatexas?
Do a google search for RCR Taylor Logistics Park. Google maps shows it as 31 miles to the north by road, maybe 27 straight line.
😂😂 casting is so far ahead of other parts of the vehicle
They can't run the presses 'live' so why waste money simmering the casting alloy when you can cast them and leave outside to cool... sometimes on racks. Must save a fortune on energy. Massive amount.
@memrjohnno what do you mean "can't run them live"? So they crank out a bunch of casts then turn it off?
@@saberianamir Yep. It's like 23s or so at full tilt so either pay to simmer the alloy which would cost a shedload or knock them out 13 to the dozen and put them in the 'larder' so as to say, for later.
Hey Joe - I sent you a message (FB?) and a connection request on LI last week. Have quick question if you wouldn't mind. Edit - name is Paul
What’s with the commercials…..:-(
@ 4:39 and 4:55 Guess these guys just can't stand the place being neat and organized. Castings all over creation, even though they have designated storage locations. And.... These castings can be placed in racks. Which would save space.
I don't think they can rack them until they are trimmed David
@@benguthrie49 You may have a point but it is still sloppy, chaotic, disorganized, and unprofessional. There has to be a better way.
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn yes, it seems strange since they spent a fortune on a tunnel to save maybe 1 minute per vehicle, yet they take so much time with the castings. 2 per vehicle, which is 4 round trips with a forklift, likely 4 or 5 minutes per trip. They should at least use racks for al the trimmed ones to save trips, and maybe design a rack for the untrimmed ones.