EV Battery Factory in Kansas to be Powered by Coal, At Least Temporarily

From Institute for Energy Research.org (Oct. 4, 2023):

A new electric vehicle battery factory in Kansas needs so much energy that the state is delaying the retirement of a coal plant to make sure the facility has enough power. The $4 billion Panasonic electric vehicle battery factory is located in De Soto, Kansas. Panasonic broke ground on the facility last year. The Japanese company is slated to receive $6.8 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, which has been pouring billions into electric vehicles and battery factories as part of its effort to transition America to electric vehicles. The factory will require between 200 and 250 megawatts of electricity to operate as electric vehicles require enormous amounts of energy to manufacture.

A 15-pound lithium-ion battery holds about the same amount of energy as a pound of oil. To produce that battery requires 7,000 pounds of rock and dirt to obtain the minerals that are needed for its manufacture. The average EV battery weighs around 1,000 pounds. The mining and factory processing needed to produce an electric vehicle results in a lot more carbon dioxide emissions than a gas-powered car, so electric vehicles have to be driven around 50,000 to 60,000 miles before there is a net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The federal government requires batteries to be warranted for at least 8 years or 100,000 miles. After that, if the batteries need replacing, more energy demand would be required. As more factories are built in the United States to supply EV manufacturers, there will be higher demands on the grid for power.

Besides the energy needed for industrial activity, there will be more demands placed on the grid to charge the electric vehicles. That energy is unlikely to come from solar panels and wind turbines, which are weather-driven and provide power intermittently. While renewables are a source of “auxiliary supplemental power,” they need a solid base load to ensure the reliable energy supply such factories require.

Evergy, the utility serving the factory, indicated that the 4 million-square-foot Panasonic facility creates “near term challenges from a resource adequacy perspective.” Beyond the sheer magnitude of load and load factor, Panasonic’s construction schedule, and, in turn, its energy needs, are being planned on a very aggressive schedule. With energy needs starting to ramp in 2024 and full load requirements by 2026, there is urgency to procure capacity and energy to fulfill the expected energy usage schedule. As a result, the utility will continue to burn coal at a power plant near Lawrence, Kansas, until at least 2028, delaying plans to transition units at the plant to natural gas. [read more]

Coal is more reliable and consistent than wind or solar. If not coal maybe the factory can be powered by a nuclear power plant? Just a thought.

H/T: Just the News article:

Tim Stewart reacts to Kansas EV factory’s reliance on coal plant: ‘No such thing as net zero’