Tesla has unveiled plans for a brand new Supercharger challenge known as ‘Oasis’, which is able to embody 168 Superchargers mixed with its personal photo voltaic farm and Megapack battery system.
Early within the deployment of the Supercharger community, Tesla promised so as to add photo voltaic arrays and batteries to the Supercharger stations, and CEO Elon Musk even stated that almost all stations would have the ability to function off-grid.
Whereas Tesla did add photo voltaic and batteries to some stations, the overwhelming majority of them don’t have their very own energy system or have solely minimal photo voltaic canopies.
Again in 2016, I requested Musk about this, and he stated that it will now occur as Tesla had the “items now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
Nicely, we now have Supercharger V4, Megapack, and SolarCity, which have been absorbed after which principally rejected by Tesla, and but, we nonetheless have restricted photo voltaic and battery deployment at Superchargers.
Earlier this 12 months, we reported on a deliberate Supercharger challenge in Misplaced Hills, California, that we stated may give us “a glimpse at the way forward for charging” as a result of the usage of photo voltaic, a microgrid, and several other pull-through charging stalls for vehicles.
Tesla has now unveiled the challenge known as ‘Oasis’ on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and the Bay Space. Right here’s a render of the challenge:
Max de Zegher, Tesla’s head of charging, launched some particulars of the challenge:
- 168 stall Supercharger in Misplaced Hills, CA
- Just one.5 MW grid service, forward of a future growth
- 11 MW of floor mount photo voltaic and canopies, on 30 acres of land
- 10 Tesla Megapacks with 39 MWh of storage
The principle function right here is the big 11 MW photo voltaic capability mixed with 39 MWh of Megapack storage capability, which permits Tesla to have a minimal grid connection.
Tesla has damaged floor for the challenge:
de Zegher explains the necessity to go partly off-grid:
We’re working in lockstep with the utility, however as a result of native substation improve timelines, we might not have been in a position to meet 2025 charging demand. Though we’re sometimes grid linked, on this case, we’re leveraging the complete Tesla ecosystem and our vertical integration.
Nonetheless, Tesla remains to be planning so as to add extra grid capability at this web site if there’s a necessity to extend the variety of stations. de Zegher says that Tesla is ready to double the capability.
Electrek’s Take
That is superior. It’s nearly a decade after Musk stated it will occur, however it’s nonetheless superior.
Earlier than Musk followers use this to justify firing the complete charging workforce (and hiring again a lot of them), because it’s now occurring after that, now we have recognized about this challenge since February, which was earlier than the workforce was fired.
So, the brand new workforce merely continues the challenge began by the earlier workforce.
Tesla’s Supercharger deployment has gone down this 12 months each on the variety of stations and the variety of stalls, however it’s nonetheless rising and not too long ago hit the 60,000th Supercharger milestone globally.
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