

Tesla Motors Picks San Jose for $250 Million 'Model S' Plant and HQ - MikeCapone
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/tesla-motors-picks-san-jose-model-s-hq.php

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patrickg-zill
I predict they will fail as a result. California is among the least business-
friendly of states, especially if you are making a physical product. How much
equipment does Cisco make in San Jose?

~~~
jonknee
But California is one of the most aggressive alternative energy promoting
states. They are motivated:

> California offered incentives worth about $15 million and possibly more.
> That includes waiving rent for the first 10 years of the 40-year lease on
> the San Jose property and waiving state sales tax on $100 million worth of
> equipment.

~~~
DabAsteroid
_California is one of the most aggressive alternative energy promoting
states._

Not really.

<http://news.google.com/news?q=fresno%20nuclear>

 _The Fresno Nuclear Energy Group has ignored a current state ban on new
nuclear power plants._

~~~
notauser
Nuclear Energy _is_ alternative enery - alternative to Coal, Natural Gas or
Oil fired generation.

It produces polution in reasonably small quantities which, unlike fossil
generation, doesn't get thrown into the atmosphere.

A mixed Nuke/Renewable infrastructure, backed with gravity hydro reservoirs
and a smallish number of gas turbine plants to absorb load spikes, is probably
the most realistic and reliable way to stop throwing junk into the atmosphere
in the short term.

~~~
DabAsteroid
_backed with gravity hydro reservoirs ... is probably the most realistic ...
in the short term._

There seems to be a relative concensus among engineers that Compressed Air
Energy Storage (CAES) makes the most sense for grid energy storage in the
longer term.

[http://topics.energycentral.com/centers/gentech/view/detail....](http://topics.energycentral.com/centers/gentech/view/detail.cfm?aid=1404)

 _In Europe, a group of researchers are studying a different [from standard
CAES] approach. It eliminates fuel consumption altogether, so that the system
functions as a pure storage facility. They call it Advanced Adiabatic CAES.

The idea for AACAES is that, in the charge cycle, hot compressed air is passed
through a counter-flow heat exchanger before being sent to its storage cavern.
The compressed air transfers its heat to a thermal storage fluid, which then
enters a well-insulated storage tank of its own. In the discharge cycle, both
flows are reversed, and the cool compressed air from the storage cavern
recovers most of the heat it gave up before being stored. The now-hot
compressed air exiting the heat exchanger drives an expander turbine to
generate power.

If the heat exchanger and thermal storage work well, then efficiencies
approaching those achieved with pumped hydroelectric storage should be
possible._

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joao
This reminds me a little of Steve Jobs, his endeavour and strategy for NeXT,
with their own factory in California.

Perhaps Testla will have the same fate as NeXT, bought by an auto giant if
they fail to go mainstream with their expensive, though great, cars.

~~~
hugh
I think they'll have a worse fate than NeXT. When the time comes for electric
cars to go mainstream, the big car companies will just muscle in on Tesla's
territory -- there's no need to buy them since (as far as I know) they don't
own any of the key parts of the technology.

Tesla might survive as a niche manufacturer in the long run, but their small
head-start in the electric car game isn't enough to make up for (say) Toyota's
huge existing infrastructure.

