
Former Tesla executives plan to build $4bn Nordic battery plant - Osiris30
https://www.ft.com/content/29e1e89e-0273-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9
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dougmany
>Securing raw materials could also be tricky as hedge funds have recently
accumulated a big stockpile of cobalt in a bet that the scarce metal, which
boosts the power of lithium-ion batteries, will increase in price.

Has the bet on price increasing ensured that the price will not increase
because now people are worried about the availability?

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acchow
This definitely has an effect. Oil went through something similar.

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simonebrunozzi
It's behind a paywall. Anybody with access who can offer a TL;DR?

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russelluresti
The TL;DR is that the former head of supply chain of Tesla (who is Swedish) is
trying to get funding to build a lithium-ion battery plant in Scandinavia.
Largely because Europe doesn't have one and is reliant on Asian countries for
their batteries (so he's seeking a kind of European energy independence).

He believes he can use minerals from mining operations in Finland as resources
and local hydro/wind sources to power it.

The biggest hurdle is getting funding - it's expensive - but he does have
initial phase backing from a few sources, including the state-owned utility
service Vattenfall.

They are mainly looking to just provide for Europe and not challenge Tesla in
the American market.

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hwillis
Given the strong commitment to renewable energy and the resulting increasingly
unstable (noisy) grid, there will probably be a strong market in Europe and
particularly Germany. There are strong graphite[1], spodumene[2], and
cobalt[3] resources in Finland, Norway and Sweden- this seems like a really
great idea. Batteries are energy intensive and labor-light to make so local
renewable power will go pretty far in keeping costs competitive. China has to
ship their lithium from central America and their cobalt from central Africa-
volume and cheap labor/power are their only current advantages.

[1] [http://investingnews.com/company-profiles/graphite-
producer-...](http://investingnews.com/company-profiles/graphite-producer-
sweden-woxna-mine-production-flinders-resources-2/)

[2] [http://sciencenordic.com/finland-new-lithium-
powerhouse](http://sciencenordic.com/finland-new-lithium-powerhouse)

[3] [https://www.adn.com/arctic/article/lapland-host-finlands-
big...](https://www.adn.com/arctic/article/lapland-host-finlands-biggest-
mine/2014/07/16/)

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fosco
FYI was initially blocked , was able to view by copying link into google
search and viewing the cached version.

~~~
iso-8859-1
[http://archive.is/pqtNR](http://archive.is/pqtNR)

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tekkk
Behind a paywall, perfect.

Yet when I searched the article from Google and went to the same page there
was no paywall. And the url is the same. That's weird.

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freyr
I followed the web link and still hit a paywall. Perfect.

Edit: I went to the "Top Stories" link, which was right above the identical
(and paywalled) search results link, and that got me through.

