Tesla has been talking about adding solar arrays and batteries to its Supercharger stations ever since announcing the fast-charging network in 2012.
But only half a dozen stations or so out of the over 800 stations ended up getting a solar array.
CEO Elon Musk said that they plan to deploy more battery and solar systems with the upcoming ‘Version 3’ of the Supercharger, but now he went a step further and claimed that “almost all Superchargers will disconnect from the electricity grid.”
Previously, Musk said that Tesla’s new Powerpack and solar arrays will power some Supercharger stations in sunny regions to go off-grid – adding that “the grid won’t be needed for moderate use Superchargers in non-snowy regions.”
While it makes sense to add solar arrays and battery packs, it’s not clear why there would be a need to completely disconnect from the grid, which is often still useful – especially if net metering is available.
Now Musk said on Twitter this morning that they are not only adding solar and batteries to “all Superchargers”, but also that “almost all” Supercharger stations will eventually disconnect from the grid:
All Superchargers are being converted to solar/battery power. Over time, almost all will disconnect from the electricity grid. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2017
The comment was in response to someone stating that Tesla’s Superchargers are charging vehicles with dirty electricity from coal plants.
As we recently reported, while partly true, the statement makes no sense if the goal is to be less polluting than gas-powered vehicles.
A recent study of electricity generation concluded that the average electric car in the US now gets the equivalent efficiency of a non-existent 73 mpg gas-powered vehicle after accounting for emission from electricity production.
Even in regions where coal dominates electricity generation, electric cars are still more efficient than some of the most efficient gas-powered cars. Therefore, the argument could have ended here, but Musk apparently wants to take Tesla’s Supercharger network off-grid as part of the company’s mission to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy.
Depending on the size and popularity of a Supercharger station, which generally varies from 6 partly used stalls to 20 stalls in almost constant use, Tesla would need some significantly large solar arrays at some stations – almost football field in size. Unless there are some impressive advancements in efficiency, it’s not clear how they would make it happen.
Earlier this year, Tesla announced a new expansion of its Supercharger network to include larger stations with 50 to 100 stalls and those are expected to feature large solar carports – pictured above and below.
Maybe we will start to see more deployment of solar products at Tesla’s facilities once the company starts producing its own solar panels with Panasonic at Gigafactory 2 this summer.
In the meantime, the expansion is well underway. As reported last week, Tesla started construction or acquired permits for over 40 more stations since announcing the expansion less than 2 months ago.
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chrsco92 on June 9th, 2017 at 16:36 UTC »
Seems like a PR statement rather than something that will actually be implementing.
The superchargers are able to charge in 15 minutes bc of the high voltage and high current. Battery's have no problem reaching high voltages but to output the high current that the EV demands will require the battery to be massively oversized. Additionally batteries can not just output massive current like the grid does instantaneously. There's ramp rate that the batteries need. Moreover the rapid discharge of batteries seriously degrades their lifetime... overall does not seem like a financially sound move. Need better energy storage technology before grid connected supercharges can be done away with.
IvorTheEngine on June 9th, 2017 at 16:21 UTC »
Why would he want to disconnect from the grid? I'd have thought that a large PV array and battery could be very useful to have on the grid. It could sell power at peak grid load and buy it back during cloudy weather.
buck45osu on June 9th, 2017 at 15:07 UTC »
I never get the arguments that "a coal power plant is power this car, so it's dirty". A coal power plant, even a shitty not very efficient one, is still way cleaner than thousands of gas and Diesel engines. A coal plant recharging a fleet of battery powered cars is going to produce less pollution than a fleet of gas powered cars.
I am not for coal, I'm actually huge on nuclear and want massive investment in fusion. But I would rather have coal powering nothing but battery powered cars than fleets of gas powered. Not a solution that is going to be implemented, nor is it feasible with coal plants getting shut down, but in concept I think it makes sense.
Edit: if anyone can link an article about pollution production by states that keeps getting mentioned that be awesome. I really want to see it. I'm from Georgia, and we've been shutting down a large number of coal power plants because they had, and I quote, "the least efficient turbines in the United States" according to a Georgia power supervisor that I met. But even then, the least efficient coal plant is going to be way more efficient and effective at getting more energy out of a certain about of fuel.
Edit 2: keep replying trying to keep discussions going with everyone. I'm loving this.
Edit 3: have to be away for a few hours. Will be back tonight to continue discussions
Edit 4: I'm back!
Edit 5: https://www.afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/electric_emissions.php from the government, even in a state like West Virginia, where 95% of energy is produced by coal, electric vehicles produce 2000lbs less pollution compared to gas. Any arguments against this?