The latest example of the Gigafactory launch is from a hydrogen technology company

Plug-in power supply

(Ticker: STECKER). “Welcome to the Rochester Innovation Center, home of the world’s first and largest [proton exchange membrane] Fuel cell and electrolyser gigafactory, ”said a Plug spokesman at the company’s hydrogen symposium, which took place on Thursday.

However, Plug doesn’t make battery-powered electric vehicles like Tesla (TSLA). Plug is trying to disrupt the heavy truck industry by replacing diesel fuel and engines with hydrogen gas and fuel cells.

However, other auto companies have followed Tesla’s lead. Early 2021,

Volkswagen

(VOW.Germany) said it is building six mega-factories in Europe to produce EV batteries.

Ford engine

(F), on the other hand, announced at the end of September that it would build a so-called mega-campus in Tennessee.

Giga is simply a prefix and means 10 to the power of nine – or in other words, one followed by nine zeros. For example, a giga dollar equals a billion dollars. (Elon Musk is worth about 200 giga dollars.)

The original Gigafactory was Tesla’s Nevada battery factory built in partnership with

Panasonic

(6752. Japan). This facility was designed to produce battery cells worth gigawatt hours each year to power Tesla electric vehicles. This is probably why the prefix Giga was added. (A single gigawatt hour of battery cells can power around 10,000 electric vehicles.)

Tesla kept this prefix and now has Giga-Shanghai, Giga-Texas and Giga-Berlin alongside Giga-Nevada.

Electric cars and the battery cells that power them are replacing gasoline-powered cars. EV batteries are charged with electricity from the grid, but much of the electricity in the US, around 20%, is now generated from renewable resources such as wind and solar power.

Hydrogen fuel cells, such as those produced by Plug Power, generate electricity using hydrogen gas. Hydrogen does not produce greenhouse gases when burned or used in a fuel cell. However, if the hydrogen gas is generated by splitting water with one of the plug electrolysers along with renewable electricity, then no carbon dioxide is emitted anywhere.

Carbon dioxide is the main gas that is blamed for global climate change.

The coining of the term Gigafactory, however, is likely to fall lower on Musk’s resume compared to his other accomplishments. He’s, of course, CEO of Tesla, which is valued at more than $ 800 billion, making it by far the most valuable auto company in the world.

Toyota engine

(TM) is number two, valued at just under $ 300 billion.

And Musk also heads spacex company, valued at $ 100 billion in private markets, making it the fourth largest aerospace and defense company in the world

Boeing

(BA),

Raytheon Technologies

(RTX) and

Lockheed Martin

(LMT).

Write to Al Root at [email protected]