Tesla has unveiled plans for a brand new Supercharger undertaking referred to 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 be capable to function off-grid.
Whereas Tesla did add photo voltaic and batteries to a couple 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 might now occur as Tesla had the “items now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
Properly, 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 yr, we reported on a deliberate Supercharger undertaking in Misplaced Hills, California, that we stated might 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 vans.
Tesla has now unveiled the undertaking referred to as ‘Oasis’ on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and the Bay Space. Right here’s a render of the undertaking:
Max de Zegher, Tesla’s head of charging, launched some particulars of the undertaking:
- 168 stall Supercharger in Misplaced Hills, CA
- Only one.5 MW grid service, forward of a future enlargement
- 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 undertaking:
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’d not have been in a position to meet 2025 charging demand. Though we’re sometimes grid related, on this case, we’re leveraging the complete Tesla ecosystem and our vertical integration.
Nonetheless, Tesla continues 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 virtually a decade after Musk stated it might occur, however it’s nonetheless superior.
Earlier than Musk followers use this to justify firing your complete charging crew (and hiring again a lot of them), because it’s now taking place after that, we have now identified about this undertaking since February, which was earlier than the crew was fired.
So, the brand new crew merely continues the undertaking began by the earlier crew.
Tesla’s Supercharger deployment has gone down this yr 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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