Chapter 239 Quick Response
Chapter 239 Quick Response
Jiang Miao discussed in depth the application prospects of bean silk materials and the layout planning of airship manufacturing in the meeting. After the meeting, he and Qin Hanming set off for Gongping Town together.
In the south of Gongping Town, adjacent to Haifeng County, a vast open space has been leveled. Next to the open space are three knitting factories and a school bag factory, all of which went bankrupt and were acquired by the company in March this year.
The factory covers an area of 276 acres, plus 1500 acres of adjacent vacant land, and has been planned as a production base for the battery business unit.
Lei Bo, the head of the battery business unit, has been stationed here recently. When he heard that the boss was coming, he hurriedly dressed and prepared to greet him.
Plant entrance.
"Boss, welcome to our office for guidance." Lei Bo said respectfully.
"Manager Lei, thank you for your hard work." Jiang Miao smiled and patted his shoulder.
"This is what I should do. Boss, Manager Qin, please come in. It's too dusty outside and we don't want to disturb you two." Lei Bo said as he stepped aside to lead the way.
Jiang Miao noticed the dust floating in the air, frowned, and said as he walked: "We need to ask the construction party to add dust reduction facilities. Too much dust will not only affect the normal operation of the factory, but also cause trouble to nearby residents, which is not good for the company's image."
Lei Bo nodded repeatedly, like a chick pecking at rice: "Okay, boss, I will immediately urge the construction party to make corrections and ensure that they are implemented as soon as possible."
Instead of going to the office building, the group went straight to the production workshop.
After several months of contact, Lei Bo had a clear understanding of the boss's style, so he directly led Jiang Miao and others to the core area of the production workshop.
Instead of taking Jiang Miao to visit ordinary workshops such as those that processed soybean meal, he took everyone to the sponge structure generation area - this is the largest and most technologically advanced part of the entire battery factory.
After wearing protective clothing and protective helmets and passing through the disinfection channel, everyone entered the sponge structure generation area.
As soon as you step into this area, what catches your eye are the neatly arranged culture chambers and a large number of customized LED red and blue lights. The entire space is full of a sense of technology and the future.
Lei Bo smiled and introduced to everyone: "Boss, Manager Qin, we have recently optimized the production process based on General Manager Lin's second-generation technology."
"How do you improve it?" Jiang Miao really didn't pay attention to this matter. He was doing breeding work and rubber grass planting tests these days.
Lei Bo took out a small notebook and found the recorded comparative data: "There are three breakthroughs: First, the consumption of raw materials has been reduced to two-thirds of the original, and the production cycle has been shortened by 50%; second, the cycle life has reached 1200 deep charge and discharge tests, and the capacity is still maintained at 92%; third."
He paused for two seconds deliberately: "The modular design reduces the risk of thermal runaway in extreme conditions by 67%."
Qin Hanming, who was standing by, made a rapid rustling sound as his pen scratched on his notebook. He raised his head and asked, "Manager Lei, what about cost control?"
"This is the most surprising part!" Lei Bo took out a relatively simple cost analysis chart: "Currently, the unit cost of battery cells has dropped by 14.3%, and the weight of system integration has been reduced by 23% compared with the previous generation. Now, the total weight of each cubic energy storage unit including the shell is 1.58 tons. With the increase in the number of cycles, the cost per kilowatt-hour has approached the critical point of 0.02 yuan."
"What about the second generation battery?"
Hearing Jiang Miao's question, Lei Bo quickly explained: "We are also currently producing second-generation batteries, mainly supplying products to some confidentiality agencies."
As for the improved second-generation sponge battery, after seeing the success of the technology, the authorities acted quickly and placed an order with Hailufeng Company half a month ago to specially produce a batch of customized high-performance batteries.
After all, the second-generation battery has a maximum storage capacity of 600 kWh per cubic meter of cells, and the number of cycles has been greatly increased.
Although Hailufeng Company has no plans to launch second-generation batteries to the civilian market immediately, it does not prevent official orders from being placed, because these high-performance second-generation sponge batteries have important uses in many key areas.
Jiang Miao walked slowly in the production workshop and asked slowly: "What is the current production capacity of the first-generation sponge battery and the second-generation sponge battery?"
Lei Bo replied based on the data he had: "Currently, the first-generation product is 7.2 cubic meters per month, and the second-generation product is 5000 cubic meters per month."
“When will the new factory be operational?”
"The construction company said that the first phase of the project will be put into use in August; the second phase will be put into use by the end of this year; and the third phase will be put into use by April next year." Lei Bo continued to add:
“每一期都是500亩的厂房，每期厂房的产能为每月10万到20万立方米电芯；全部厂房完成，可以实现年产海绵电芯360万到720万立方米。”
This production capacity is almost sufficient.
Because it is not only Hailufeng that is expanding its production. Beijing Energy Battery and Guodian Battery, which have also obtained technology licenses, have annual outputs of similar scale.
After all, the core users of sponge batteries at this stage are the energy storage industry, and the electric vehicle industry has not yet completely switched to a battery replacement model.
Among them, Future Automobile, which has basic advantages, has made changes relatively quickly. It has announced that it will launch a battery-swap car in August that can fully adapt to the specifications of sponge batteries.
Even a car company with battery production capabilities has quietly announced its entry into the battery-swap vehicle market.
After inspecting the battery factory in Gongping Town, Jiang Miao went to the power dispatching center of Nandian in Shanmei.
Jiang Lincai, the person in charge of the dispatch center, greeted with a smile: "Boss Jiang, we were one family five hundred years ago!"
Jiang Miao also nodded slightly: "Director Jiang, is your experiment going well?"
"It went very smoothly, and I have to thank President Jiang for his strong support." Jiang Lincai replied with a smile.
Nanfang Electric Power Group recently conducted an off-line operation test in Shanmei, and this is the experimental result that Jiang Miao inquired about.
The purpose of doing this test is to conduct preliminary research for subsequent cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
Then, in order to achieve the goal of 2030 yuan per kilowatt-hour for household electricity before 0.3, the power grid must make a plan to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
So what does this cost-reduction and efficiency-increasing plan have to do with Internet disconnection testing?
The most critical connection is to test the establishment of independent distributed microgrids, which is also the key point to solve the problem of grid costs.
At present, the comprehensive cost for the power grid to deliver each kilowatt-hour of electricity to users is around 0.5 to 0.7 yuan.
The cost of each kilowatt-hour of electricity delivered to a household is composed of:
The cost of power generation is 0.25 yuan to 0.35 yuan;
Transmission and distribution costs are 0.15 yuan to 0.2 yuan;
Special funds: 0.05 yuan to 0.08 yuan;
Taxes range from 0.05 yuan to 0.07 yuan.
Thanks to the cheap energy storage system, especially Hailufeng’s improved sponge battery and second-generation sponge battery, the cost of photovoltaic and wind power generation can be reduced to around 0.04 yuan to 0.12 yuan per kilowatt-hour.
Therefore, the official timetable is that before 2030, the on-grid electricity price for wind power and photovoltaic power will be 0.1 yuan. This is to force these new energy companies to complete the transformation as soon as possible and strive to reduce their power generation capacity to below 0.1 yuan, so that they can obtain price difference profits.
At the same time, the government will also adjust special funds and taxes, which can be adjusted to 0.06 yuan per kilowatt-hour.
This means that the power grid needs to cut more than half of its costs in power transmission and distribution.
So how do we cut the cost of power transmission and distribution?
The key point lies in microgrids.
You should know that the construction cost of ultra-high voltage is more than 10 million yuan per kilometer. In some special areas, such as the Yangtze River cross-river cable, the cost per kilometer is almost 100 million yuan.
Moreover, long-distance power transmission will increase power losses as the distance increases.
In some places with small populations, in order to ensure normal electricity consumption, the power grid still needs to lay lines there. Especially in many remote villages, to achieve electrification, the cost of transmission and distribution is bound to be high.
This requires the construction of microgrids to solve the electricity consumption in such rural areas, directly using photovoltaic panels and sponge batteries.
It is estimated that through this method, combined with reasonable regulation of valley peaks, the cost of transmission and distribution can be reduced by about 30%. Combined with the reduction of the construction of some ultra-high voltage lines, the cost of transmission and distribution can be compressed to 0.08 yuan to 0.1 yuan per kilowatt-hour.
All in all, the comprehensive cost can be compressed to 0.24 yuan to 0.26 yuan per kilowatt-hour, with an average of 0.25 yuan per kilowatt-hour.
When the overall electricity price floor is 0.3 yuan per kilowatt-hour, the average gross profit per kilowatt-hour is 0.05 yuan. Of course, in some areas, the electricity cost for residents is 0.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour, so the profit is not bad.
The power grid charges each battery swapping company 0.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour.
In addition, during this transformation of the power system, the nuclear power and thermal power industries are unable to reduce their power generation costs, but these two types of power generation cannot be completely abolished.
Therefore, the power grid can only add 0.05 yuan per kilowatt-hour to the overall electricity fee standard. This additional fee raises the overall electricity fee standard to 0.35 yuan per kilowatt-hour. This is the minimum fee to subsidize thermal power plants, nuclear power plants, and some medium and large hydropower stations.
Faced with this kind of adjustment, many new energy industries are saying that things are changing.
In the past, photovoltaic and wind power received subsidies.
At present, nuclear power, thermal power and hydropower stations are receiving subsidies. In this process, small hydropower stations are basically doomed, because they are outdated production capacity that needs to be eliminated, and they cannot receive subsidies. In addition, their power generation costs are relatively high, so they can only go mining.
Jiang Miao stayed at the Shanmei Dispatching Center of Nandian Group for less than twenty minutes before returning to the company headquarters.
As soon as he came back, he heard the report from his business secretary Liu Deming.
"Boss, an hour ago, Goldwind Technology sent us an application for inspection."
“Goldwind Technology?”
Qin Hanming on the side reminded: "Boss, it is one of the large wind power equipment manufacturers in China."
Jiang Miao raised his eyebrows: "Oh? What are they coming to see? Sponge batteries?"
Liu Deming quickly replied, "There is indeed a project to investigate sponge batteries. Goldwind Technology operates many wind power stations in China. However, they came here this time to investigate another project, which is the high-strength artificial spider silk that our company recently applied for a patent for."
"They do have a keen nose, but do they know the rules of our company?"
Liu Deming nodded: "I have already replied and informed them that they have no problem. If the inspection meets their expectations, they are willing to accept our company's payment first and delivery later."
Hailufeng Company will not tolerate the bad habits of domestic companies. It has always been a policy of payment before delivery. Generally, 30% of the payment is paid first, and 60% of the payment is collected after the product is inspected and accepted. After the product is put into use, the balance of 10% is collected.
This model is not only for Hailufeng's downstream companies, but also for Hailufeng's upstream suppliers. The company will give a 30% advance payment according to this rule to avoid the supplier's capital chain being too tight.
Even if a state-owned enterprise is the upstream of Hailufeng Company, it still has to pay a 30% advance payment to Hailufeng Company.
Moreover, as long as this company breaches the contract once, it will be included in the blacklist of Hailufeng Company.
This forced many companies to change their previous models when facing Hailufeng Company.
Moreover, Hailufeng Company has special clauses to restrict its cooperative enterprises that have obtained technical authorization, so as to prevent these enterprises from engaging in behaviors such as delivering goods first and paying later in order to win orders.
This kind of behavior is a self-defeating internal consumption for every industry.
Jiang Miao cannot control other industries, but companies that use Hailufeng’s technology must follow Jiang Miao’s rules. This is an iron rule that cannot be questioned.
After all, Hailufeng Company gave you the technology license, not for you to engage in vicious competition with Hailufeng Company.
Goldwind Technology is willing to accept Hailufeng's rules, which is the basis for cooperation. Otherwise, Jiang Miao would not waste time meeting the other party.
In fact, many domestic companies are now paying close attention to any developments in Hailufeng Company.
This time, Hailufeng Company intensively registered patents for artificial spider silk and artificial silk, which immediately attracted the attention of many companies.
For example, Goldwind Technology, which applied for the inspection this time, discovered that among Hailufeng Company's artificial spider silk patents, several patents may be closely related to their manufacturing of wind turbine fan blades.
Originally, Goldwind Technology was only focusing on the patents for improving sponge batteries, but after accidentally discovering one of the patents for artificial spider silk, they began to take it seriously.
The patent is titled: "Artificial spider silk fiber material prepared by a special process (No. DS12)"
The patent describes a high-strength, high-rigidity, medium-elasticity, and ultra-lightweight artificial spider silk fiber material.
In fact, this is an unexpected product, because whether it is natural spider silk or artificial spider silk, its rigidity is not high after modification, at least much lower than carbon fiber and glass fiber, and basically cannot be used as raw material for rigid components.
However, after repeated treatment with boric acid and glycerol three times, a special dense nanostructured artificial spider silk yarn was formed, and its rigidity was greatly improved.
On average, each time the boric acid and glycerol are treated, the strength and stiffness are improved to varying degrees.
After one treatment, the stiffness can reach about 62GPa.
After secondary treatment, the stiffness is improved again and can reach about 145GPa.
After three treatments, the stiffness changes again, reaching an astonishing 477 GPa.
You should know that the stiffness of 477GPa has exceeded the upper limit of carbon fiber stiffness, which is 400GPa.
This stiffness is second only to carbon nanotubes, which can reach a stiffness of 500 to 1000 GPa.
However, the stiffness of carbon nanotubes is indeed a theoretical data. If the weaving process is used and other composite materials are added to produce carbon nanotube bundle materials, the stiffness is only about 50 to 200 GPa.
The ideal is full, but the reality is very skinny.
The reason for this situation is mainly due to the processing technology of carbon nanotubes, which makes it easy for various structural defects to occur when they are compounded with other materials and woven into bundled fibers.
However, the modification process of artificial spider silk is slightly different.
At present, when processing artificial spider silk, the bean silk laboratory of Hailufeng Company often does not process the raw materials, but first processes the raw materials through textile technology to form the required yarn, silk cloth and other semi-finished products, and then carries out modification.
After modification, a special nanostructure will be formed on the surface of yarn and silk cloth.
Continuous treatment will make the nanostructures on these surfaces denser and the defects fewer.
Generally, by the third time, the surface of the spider silk yarn has been tightly covered with nanostructures, and these nanostructures are firmly integrated with the spider silk.
This is the fundamental reason why the rigidity strength of artificial spider silk yarn changes suddenly after modification.
In essence.
Artificial spider silk has unsatisfactory stiffness at the beginning, but through artificial modification and enhancement, a huge performance mutation occurs.
Carbon nanotubes, on the microscopic scale, initially have very high strength, but after later composite processing, structural defects appear, causing performance to plummet.
The two went to completely opposite extremes.
This is why Hailufeng Company conceived of an ultra-light airship. The reason is that the strength of this artificial spider silk yarn is too strong. If it is used as the skeleton of the supporting structure, it would be easy to reduce the weight of the structure by half.
And because artificial spider silk itself is very tough, its ability to absorb collision impact is also very good, almost twice that of steel.
This thing can not only be used as the fan blade material of wind turbines, but also as bulletproof vests, vehicle frames, vehicle armor, high-strength cables, aircraft frames and shells, etc.
However, the only weakness of the modified artificial spider silk yarn is its poor heat resistance. Even with the protection of a special nanostructured shell, its upper temperature failure limit can only reach 246 degrees Celsius.
Even as temperatures exceed 200 degrees Celsius, performance changes begin to appear.
However, this characteristic also brings another potential characteristic, that is, if the outer shell of the material is damaged, it can be quickly repaired by applying a mixture of glycerin and borax powder and then heating it with a hot air blower.
Goldwind Technology is attracted by the high strength and high rigidity of this material. As long as the price does not exceed that of carbon fiber, this thing will have great value.
After all, the fan blades of wind turbines are often hundreds of meters long, and even if they are made of carbon fiber, the weight of a single blade is about 20 tons.
If the blades are made of a mixture of glass fiber and carbon fiber, the weight will be even higher.
After switching to modified artificial spider silk yarn fibers, carbon fiber blades can reduce weight by 15%, carbon fiber and glass fiber mixed blades can reduce weight by 35%, and glass fiber blades can reduce weight by 50%.
In fact, this is not only related to the weight of the blades, but also to the power generation efficiency. After using lighter and higher strength materials, the power generation efficiency of wind turbines can be greatly improved.
Goldwind Technology used a supercomputer and introduced this material, and found that the power generation efficiency of wind turbines could be increased by 20% to 50%.
If it were in the past, Goldwind Technology probably would not be too interested. After all, before the sponge battery came out, due to the withdrawal of wind power subsidies, the profit cycle of wind power projects was too long and faced huge risks.
But things are different now. With sponge batteries as energy storage systems, the ability to absorb wind power is no longer a limitation. Now the higher the power generation efficiency of each wind turbine, the greater the profit.
(End of this chapter)