1 GWh of Cells

A look at the numbers around 1 GWh of cells and what could you do with 1 GWh of energy.

  • 1000,000,000 Wh
  • 55,555,555 cylindrical 21700 cells
  • 3,816,793 miles in a Tesla Model 3 (262Wh/mile)
  • 3,600,000 MJ
  • 1,000,000 kWh
  • 390,000 litres of electrolyte (~7mL for a 5Ah 21700)
  • 137,000 years of browsing the web on your mobile
  • 3,861 tonnes of 21700 cells
  • 1,000 MWh
  • 323 households worth of electricity for a year in the UK
  • 160 tonnes Lithium metal (based on 160g/kWh)
  • 106 parts per minute production for one year of 21700 based on 24/7 manufacturing operation
  • 50 GWh of energy used in cell assembly process

There are more equivalents for 1 GWh and 1GWh of cells, but hopefully this just helps put the unit into perspective.

References

  1. How Much Lithium is in a Li-Ion Vehicle Battery?, Paul Martin, LinkedIn

cell manufacture schematic

Manufacturing Process

In order to engineer a battery pack it is important to understand the fundamental building blocks, including the battery cell manufacturing process. This will allow you to understand some of the limitations of the cells and differences between batches of cells. Or at least understand where these may arise.

benchmarking battery packs

Key Pack Metrics

There are a number of key pack metrics, including the energy density.

2 thoughts on “1 GWh of Cells”

  1. Dear Sir
    The electrolyte used in one cell would be

    No. of cells/ Litres of Electrolyte= 55,555,555/390000 = 142.450 ltr which is not possible.
    Am I correct?
    Please help with this,

    Reply

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