⚡ Tesla Unveils Its First Fully Off-Grid Solar Supercharger Station

Seeing the panels over the parking is such a thing of beauty... I wish it was easy to do this across all parking lots in the US.

Amazing feat but that is an incredibly large supercharger. I can’t help but wonder if they got so caught up in the “could we” they may have not asked the “should we” part. I find it hard to believe any part of California gets so busy with enough traffic to warrant 168 charging stalls, even during peak travel. This also seems counterproductive to Tesla’s policy of implementing dynamic pricing at superchargers to encourage shorter charge times.

A huge charging station in the middle of nowhere. Great idea.

I mean, do they have rest areas? Bathrooms, food etc. Until this happens long trip driving is still a bit of a nightmare

You have to think 10-20 years down the road. This is an excellent move towards getting ahead of the charging market. The future is electric and as more and more new cars become electric these will 100% be necessary. Think of the size of a Buccees and they are thriving. Gas stations like that will have to retool to majority charging or go out of business.

Pretty much half way between SF and LA in CA, so if there's anywhere that could a site this size, this makes sense to me.

All the 20-100 stall chargers along the 5 freeway in California fill up frequently, especially during holidays.

Badass

What extension/solar panels + batteries is required to charge one car?

afaik, after cleaning, maintenance and depreciation cost, you actually lose money on these except for a very few places where elec is very expensive.

This is a smart move and a great location too. It's approximately half way between LA and SF which already has a massive amount of traffic. This will be a perfect spot to stop, charge up and take a break. And at 168 charging stations it will never be full, at least not in the near future. I love it that it's completely off grid too. Now if we could just get some charging stations near our National Parks, like Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

so awesome to see

You have obviously never traveled this stretch of highway during the holiday season…

What amenities will be there?

And people want so badly for this company to fail because of one man.

Seems silly, why not at least be able to sell back excess power when it’s available

The article does say that it is connected to the grid, so I’ll bet they can and will. I’d love to see significantly reduced charging rates (once it has paid for itself), but I’m a dreamer.

You wonder.... While tesla uses data to understand peak demand. I've been to Barstow CA. 70 superchargers. There were 10+ people in line when I got there, but I only had to wait less than 2 minutes. If cars are charging for ~20 minutes that's ~3.5 stalls opening up per minute. The twist. It was a random weekday that was not a holiday... There are concerts/festivals that have a huge number of people all arriving/leaving at the same time, and there are countless posts about people complaining about having to wait a long time. This solves the congestion.

There might not be a local grid in that area. Which is why they are off-grid. Otherwise that would be a good idea. Would be really amazing if create mini-data centers were they could use extra power to run AI training/inference.

I mean other than the upfront cost, it kinda is easy. Just a glass canopy and some wires.

This is amazing.

> And at 168 charging stations it will never be full, at least not in the near future. You say that, but there are already over 300 stalls along I-5 in the immediate vicinity of this new station that are pretty regularly near capacity. It would not surprise me if this new station is regularly saturated shortly after opening, not with only Tesla vehicles but the other new additions to the network.

They can, it is grid connected. Title should say fully off-grid *capable*

There are already over 300 stalls along I-5 in the immediate vicinity of this new station that are pretty regularly near capacity. It would not surprise me if this new station is regularly saturated shortly after opening, not with only Tesla vehicles but the other new additions to the network. This is the busiest EV travel corridor in the United States.

You just activated four different union reps

What is the charging cost? As it’s fully off grid, is it any cheaper?

So, no running water and porta potties for bathroom breaks? That's rough.

And a legion of NIMBYs, the wrath of the zoning committee, and tons of, uh, bird watchers for some reason.

It's also for the non Tesla owners in ca which will soon be using sc more often. It's always better to have more than less when expanding

Zunder charging network in Spain already does this with solar shelters over the chargers. The chargers themselves are also better in every way. But good that Tesla are finally getting on board with this. And its not like a planning or space issue, since Zunder and Tesla are often in the same car park. With Zunder sheltered with solar and pumping out double the energy of the Tesla chargers out in the 40° sun. - Which becuase people are idiots, are always full of Teslas, even though there's a better, faster, sheltered option literally 15ft away.

That’s an interesting point, even though it should be, I imagine Tesla will keep the prices at or very near the market charging rate in CA. Superchargers located in areas like this that are situated between major cities and kind of in the middle of nowhere typically have around $0.50 per kWh, maybe even more.

🤣. good one.

tesla stations are almost always the cheapest in the area. still, its not like they are going to leave money on the table.

and people on this sub. it’s pretty incredible. people can be fickle and stupid.

It's exhausting isn't it? It's Elon Derangement Syndrome. Have you ever seen someone extract so much hate energy with so little effort from so many people? Not to be an apologist, but it's ruined most of Reddit.

Nice, want to see more even more pull throughs!

This location was considerably more expensive to build, so I doubt it.

Top charge rate on a model Y is 250kW. One square meter of solar panels generates around 400 watts (generously). So to match the peak charge rate you need 250,000 / 400 or about 600 square meters of solar panels per car. But the peak charge isn’t always usable so maybe half that or 300 square meters per concurrent vehicle. But they also have batteries so presumably can be filling the batteries from shortly after sunrise when few vehicles would be charging.

46¢ a kwH, the existing supercharger down the street is 44¢

When I browsed the website, the nearest amenities are the gas station / truck stops are across the highway

I can’t wrap my head around why any of them would care about canopies over a parking lot

I think the upfront cost that you're brushing aside is very significant and the reason why we don't see this. Few businesses can afford to do that. Tesla can because supplying electricity is a core part of their business.

wow long overdue

They are paid to complain about it.

Lounge coming in the future

Soo free?

I’m happy and sad … this country and renewables could be so much better if it wasn’t for the excessive greed dominating our government

Surprised to see so many positive comments actually. So many mainstream Redditors joined this sub just to be annoying.

More like people want this one man to fail, at any cost – it would be better for everyone if he just let go of Tesla and let someone else run it, but sadly that’s unrealistic.

Note that because Tesla fully owns charging stations, they don't have to price them to actually be profitable in any given location. So some superchargers can subsidize others. My guess is this probably cost them considerably more than a normal set of superchargers and would have to be much more expensive, but they won't price it that way.

LEGOLAND in FL has this.

The lost hills area has a lot of charging stations. There’s nothing there and there’s sun alllll the time.

Now have them do it for their AI data centers!!!

France has that as a law. The office I work at has done so as well. Imagine all the giant malls with solar panels and battery packs.

It’s the break down spot if you drive a shit box.

Those people exposed themselves as the biggest idiots

I want this everywhere. Amusement parks should have this over all the lines/waiting areas.

Agreed. If you look closely though most of the panels are ground mount, simply because it takes sooo many panels to power something like this.

I don’t get the idea of wanting Tesla the company fail as a way to hurt Elon. As if the rest of the world and the products we buy everyday support UNICEF or something. Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft - these companies have massive power and money and do massive damage to the planet and have greedy corporate practices that hurt people as well. Tesla is a small fish compared to the power and influence of those other companies.

I was driving home with FSD today and was stoked to see that I needed to stop and charge in Lost Hills because I wanted to see this charging station. Was disappointed when my car pulled into a Dennys parking lot with Tesla chargers hahaha

That’s pretty awesome

Oh yeah for sure, especially for this project specifically. The bonus for me (and I'm sure plenty of others) would be keeping most of the cars cooler being in the shade. I also wonder about how it would deal with/possibly help with snow fall in the northern states (whether it would be a help or a major hindrance to the plows, I can't decide).

Dude, I'd be more likely to get solar panels if the upfront cost wasn't so bad. The fact we have over a 3000% tax on them is insane.

I imagine weather in certain areas will hinder this. Where I live we have tornadoes, hail, ice, high winds too. If they’re durable enough I’d love to see it.

It’s becoming more common. And solar is only getting cheaper

We need a supercharger in the Yosemite valley

Exactly. It’s easy but people don’t wanna pay for it. Really should be mandatory in sunny places

I thought wow that’s a lot of solar to power some chargers. And then I saw the amount of them. Holy crabsticks that is a humongous amount of energy. Do we have numbers of how many stalls there are? Must be a 100 at least. One of those rows is 24?

If you look up Lost Hills, ironically it's mostly pictures of oil wells

The company will not fail or go away … too many good things have been born from them. That “one man”, brilliant yes, just needs to cackle off into the sunset with his money. Let his company flourish - please!

Damn - just damn! Amazing

Sweet charging station and loving the shade.

Solar panels are cheap. But the megapacks…

Nope is cheaper to put solar panels where you need to chop down trees and pave. Rather than put them on existing buildings or over parking lots.

That's hilarious. I was charging there over the weekend and was thinking this is a pretty big lot.

How can Tesla be a small fish when the man leading it was apart of the US government? Tesla enabled him to that position. His enormous wealth and influence hinge on its success.

Great idea. Evidently good execution. But this is NOT "off-grid". It may very well be capable of cutting the 1.5 MW interconnection, but they didn't. For context, this interconnection can serve ~6 cars charging at max rate from grid power alone. More realistically, 10 cars since they are seldom charging at peak rates. I've done some fancy grid-forming stuff with the Tesla MegaPacks. Great product. I wish the company would put this level of effort into their not-pet-projects instead of leaving a mess for others to clean up. My BURNING question is what they used for PV inverters. The PowerWall is an obvious choice since it has MPPTs built-in. I can't find anything to suggest this is what they did. But this is really a better opportunity for hardware that Tesla does not currently manufacture. The scale is impressive, but this really has more in common with Costco's recent EV charger developments than a major leap in charging infrastructure.

I hate Musk but I have to love this This is amazing

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It can be quite foggy in the winter here.   There are some transmission lines nearby. I wonder if it has a connection option?

Why off grid ? Are they useless in the winter/night?

Touch grass bud

This is the best!

Our local zoo has solar panel canopies over the parking. It's wonderful.

To get the money back on the investment to build this might take 100 years

Over time it will be much lower cost per kwh.

I would assume malls wouldn't even need battery packs. I bet they use a ton of power. But I can't remember the last time I've been to a mall. Maybe the 90's?

I chuckled. Thanks!

Hate musk but that is amazing

I’ve seen it at Bay Area high schools and hospitals.

Plus I recently learned what bifacial panels are. They can generate extra power from the grounds reflections. Perfect for mounting them a few meters from the ground.

It is, compared to many European countries with *very* strict zoning laws, not to speak of the general lack of open space! In the US there are no lack of open spaces, if the downtown areas don't allow it, I can't imagine you have to go far for it to be allowed? The challenge is cost and ROI, with 0 state/federal incentive, I fear sticking to the grid is the most profitable solution for most :/

This report outlines that for many regions in the world a combination of solar and grid scale batteries can deliver reliable baseload power at a cheap cost compared to other forms of energy.  https://www.industryintel.com/news/ember-reports-batteries-enable-97-continuous-solar-power-supply-in-sunniest-regions-new-study-shows-cost-effective-24-hour-generation-now-feasible-with-current-technology-171416748672

Are you asking if solar panels can handle wind, ice and hail? If so than yes up to some very large hail sizes.  Tornadoes depending on size are going to destroy anything.

He already said he was an ass and went to far with that chainsaw moment on stage at cpac. But yah WE have derangement syndrome.

Just went there not all stations are open but was great there were still plenty left when we got there! Love it

There is a 3000% tax on solar panels?

Is it completely off grid for a reason? Wouldn't being connected to the grid be better from an environmental perspective?

3,521% to be exact on imported panels. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ygdv47vlzo The foreign panels are so cheap, they slapped high taxes on them so American businesses can continue to complete and overcharge.

It’s been fine. The charging capabilities of this location have been open for a long time now.

Wasting land on a single low value use such as parking or solar cells should be avoided wherever possible. Combining those two will save a ridiculous amount of habitat.

In the event of insanely high winds, huge hail, or tornadoes you'd probably prefer broken solar panels in a field or otherwise unused space rather than having glass and other parts all over a parking lot though. I agree that solar of parking lots is awesome but I can see why, in certain areas, people may not like the idea.

Then build more until they are cheaper to install.

wtf does that even mean?

I say, we need to find a way to make batteries better or maybe eliminate them altogether. We have the technology.

I agree with putting them on building and over parking lots. Where ever they use cover could be a place to install them.

My hope is that as all these EVs become older, we get tons of used EV batteries to be put into these stations for cheap.

Way cheaper. Panels are cheap compared to the structure holding them 13.5’ above the ground when you have to mitigate a wind load.

Give it 30-50 years...and this will become the norm when EVs start dominating.

I think it would take a hell of a lot of effort to shatter the glass on modern solar panels. Even the residential modules I am using on my house have a shockingly high rating and they use tempered glass I think. Hail of the size that could damage panels would absolutely murder any vehicle except for maybe the cybertruck haha. So having them overhead would actually be better :). https://www.namastesolar.com/blog/hail-solar-panels-how-much-hail-can-solar-panels-handle/

It's only a good idea in desert of low-value land. This counts as a visual blight if it's in forest or more green areas. IMHO.

It's alongside I5... nothing but gas stations and fast food chains.

impressive... has any info on upfront costs been published?

Not much else in lost hills.

I drove home on a Sunday of a long weekend and charging was a shit show. It was also over 100 degrees and some of the chargers will throttled down to 1/2 throughput. Can’t have enough chargers.

I got a peek at a similar Tesla project that fell through in the end. They used a major manufacturers 3 phase utility-scale inverter. Apparently it wasnt worth the work to certify for a small number of projects US wide (at the time.)

Oh man, could have suspended the cord from the ceiling and then it would have been easier to reach any vehicle that pulled in

I think it has to be off-grid or else you have a lot of additional hoops to jump through

This why I wull buy another Tesla next car I get.

Wish water parks did this. Those pumps use insane amounts of power

This is cool and all but why haven't they built actual facilities in parallel? In the UK/EU these places are always built in partnership with one or more coffee/food places

It's been common in Australia for around a decade. A lot of big supermarket carparks do it. It's pretty cool and awesome in summer.

There is way, way, way more to that story of 3,000% tax (actually tariff). Let this be a lesson to you about headlines and misleading articles - that tariff was specifically to protect US consumers from terrible panels that were dumped by Chinese manufacturers to sell to unsuspecting buyers in the US through other countries.

There absolutely is not. There is a tariff on panels coming from a very few countries that were being used as intermediary shippers as a way to offload crappy panels from China to unsuspecting US buyers.

Most panel manufacturers say you don't need to clean the panels and that regular rain will suffice (source: literally having panels installed on my house today, spoke with many companies), although this specific location is pretty arid so it likely will need cleaning due to limited rain. Also not sure what maintenance you think a solar panel needs, but there is no regular maintenance. Depreciation cost? I have never once heard someone talk about buying panels and thinking about how much money they can recoup by selling them in 10 years.

> Wouldn't being connected to the grid be better from an environmental perspective? Why?

Electricity.

They wouldn't need to manufacture all of the batteries being used to make this off-grid. They could send the extra power (generated by solar) to the grid to power other loads (offsetting possible fossil fuel-based generation). They could help with load management and reduce grid peak loads (peak loads generally have worse emissions than base loads). It appears that this specific system is actually connected to the grid and is designed to have the ability to become islanded, so they already are likely doing the things described.

I'd pay 2 cents more to support the new install

Hell yes thats fucking awesome.

They don't require 13.5' stilts on rooftops though.

Solar *was* only getting cheaper. The new bill puts a crimp in that.

Don't bother with cleaning. We did two years with cleaning and then tried without for a couple of years... there was no noticeable difference in output, even with the trivial amount of rain Arizona gets. Been running them without cleaning for about 18 years now. > except for a very few places where elec is very expensive We pay 10-12 cents per kWh, which is substantially below the US average. Solar panels paid for themselves in five and a half years. One inverter failure (under warranty), no panel issues, hooray free money for almost two decades now.

Even if the station is exactly as-is, being able to sell excess power to the grid would still benefit everybody. I'm assuming it's just not possible at the location currently, or they would-- it's better environmentally, it's better for the station owner, and it's better for the grid owners. But it also sounds like this isn't really "off grid"-- it's capable of running without the grid, but is in fact connected. Makes more seense... when the batteries are full, they can sell the excess. They can also likely make a fortune doing rapid grid response stuff as slower generators throttle up and down and they fill in briefly to cover the difference.

Power companies can though.   They just need to partner with property owners.

We need Superchargers all over the country.   One thing that keep me from buying a Tesla is the lack of charging stations.    This especially on the interstates.   Apparently Tesla, Elon, or somebody else, don’t grasp the need for visibility and proximity to the interstates or even highly traveled roads.    The last thing i want to do is travel to the backside of some town, miles off my route, just to gas up.  Further travel plazas, that are consistent from one location to another, really enable pleasant travel.

Sure, but they're not doing it. It's probably cheaper for them to buy land in the middle of nowhere for these dishes than build these structures in parking lots where cars and people can damage them. This type of infrastructure has a lot more safety requirements than putting panels where you don't have to worry about the general public.

It really depends on many factors and one can’t really guess how Tesla will pay for the site.    Given that in many locations solar is already cheaper than local generation rates.  Also the added cost of the high mounted panels isnt that much of a delta over those closer to ground.  In either case you would still need the poles, frames and foundations.  If they are paying for it over 20 years the extra cost isn’t a huge factor.

People need to listen to Musk.   This country has real problems with spending.   Spending money we don’t have.    We are literally destroying our children's futures.   The fact is neither party seems to care.

I live in Southern California so that’s not really much of an issue for me personally

It isn't greed it is stupidity of the electorate.    We the people need to demand that politicians stick to their platforms.   Even if that means people die in the streets from hunger.   It is better in the short term to lose a few than to drive the country into the poor house and lose everybody.

There hasn't been a single Republican president since Nixon who's really tried to balance the budget (and the deficit still increased under him, but he definitely tried to fight congress on that). In my entire lifetime, 'fiscal conservatism' means, in practice, nothing more than tax cuts. To me, fiscal conservatism should mean balanced budgets. Just look at [this table](https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and-percentage-7371225). Do you see any trend *at all* of the budget going down under Republican presidents over the past 50 years including Trump himself? You could argue that it increased under Democrats too. But if you compare the increase under each Democrat, it's a lower increase than it was during the previous Republican's term. It went from an increase of 42% over 4 years under George H.W. Bush (which followed the enormous jump of 160% under Reagan) to a 29% increase in 8 years of Clinton with a balanced budget at the very end of his term (the last one we've seen and I think the only one in my lifetime). It went from a 72.6% increase under George W Bush to an increase of 64.4% under Obama. It went from a 39.2% increase under Trump's first term to a 30.5% increase under Biden. If it were up to me, there would be no additional tax cuts until the budget is balanced. Ideally, there'd be a significant budget surplus before introducing more tax cuts (in order to pay down the outstanding federal debt, which will never happen if we don't have a sustained budget surplus). From what I've seen, deficits seem to only matter when there's a Republican congress paired with a Democrat president, at least since the 70s. The same Republican-led congress that balanced the budget under Clinton then turned around and blew it up under Bush.

California is having some issues with the stability of their grid from the amount of solar deployment in their state.

This is amazing. Elon being crazy and whatever, but this is really really cool

> There hasn't been a single Republican president since Nixon who's really tried to balance the budget There have been multiple Democrats who have, though. If that's a priority, Musk could swallow his pride...

It is! They put this in a great spot. It will be very popular on holiday weekends.

You missed my point, many of us voted the way we did because of an expressed desire to become more responsible financially.   Musk should be pissed off as are the rest of us, we didnt expect an immediate end to the budget deficit we did expect some effort to shrink it each year.   The fact is neither party takes the problem seriously.   Effectively the newly elected did the opposite of what was implied.   Beyond that the hideous amounts of money spent on social programs does its own damage to the country.     No good has ever come from sending tax dollars to the lazy, stupid and shiftless.   It simply isn't productive use of tax dollars.

This isn't true either.  At least not in recent times.

That is nice!   Around here i can travel hundreds of miles, cross entire states and never see a supercharger station.  Frankly it is important for the stations to be seen, especially on heavily traveled routes.

Yes it might be cheaper in some respects but wasting vasts amounts of land for solar energy generation is stupid ate worse and short sighted at best.   Im still shocked that few places have mandatory building codes requiring X amount of residential solar.

This is how it's done!

Probably but if they produce a ton during the day it would be better to bank it or to smooth out the supply potentially.

But that’s a pretty insignificant dent, compared to the massive progress the rest of the world is making in solar. Without incentives, daytime solar is the cheapest form of electricity in many places

Globally you're absolutely right. That actually restores my hope a bit.

Maybe, but I'd be surprised they didn't draw the full amount. But I'm definitely no expert. Shops, kitchens for the food courts, all the interior lighting/air conditioning, elevators, etc. Honestly malls seem like a giant waste of energy in general. Most places arould me are outdoor shops close together instead of a giant internal shopping plaza.

There is that little thing called hail...its brutal in Oklahoma.

That isn't an unknown. I know my panels can withstand 1" hail at 50mph, I wouldn't be surprised if there are stronger panels available.

So when does the investment pay back? Article doesn't say but how much did it cost to build this. Assuming $0.50 a KW how many cars have to charge until this thing makes money...or can it EVER make money once cost of maintenance and taxes are included? I wonder if there is "concession" revenue or perhaps a charge to use the toilets. There better be toilets or that place will get stinky pretty quick.

Strip malls are cheaper builds but less pleasant because you are subjected to the elements but you are probably right, they may chew through all the power. Now I am curious.

Not where it snows, would just pile up and be a pain. Makes sense for all of the never snow places.

Just install them at an angle. The snow would slide off and then they don’t have to shovel the walkways

Tesla makes Super chargers from profits from Other car companies using them, so if you're asking for break even, you maybe have to hunt for that because it's been paid for and will be paid for by others, not depending on Tesla its also why and how their chargers are massively better and cheaper to charge at...

Certainly thwarts copper thieves. I heard China has light posts that have solar collectors.

Whoa. That's a lot of solar.

It actually is.

Nope, it seems hard for you to actually try and think about. Its cheaper in all aspects. The land is for sale It is not a waste. The waste is NOT using it.... The residents are individually owned, sorta of, not everyone want solar or panels on their. house...

I don’t believe it’s “off-the-grid.” More than likely it’s tied into PG&E. It “delivers” power to them but probably doesn’t “receive” power from them. So, it’s net positive energy production (i.e., fully sustainable). If you ever want to understand Elon always think as he does; sustainability above all else. Sustainable planet - EVs, solar, batteries, robots. Sustainable intelligence/ communication - Starlink, X and xAI. Sustainable humanity - SpaceX, Neuralink, population growth. Sustainable government - DOGE, spending cuts. “Sustainable” is often overused but it describes him to a ‘T.’ Lost Hills sits at the intersection of the 5 and 46. The 5 links NorCal with SoCal and the 46 links the California central coast with the San Joaquin (central) Valley. (Ironically, Lost Hills is an oil producing region). A lot of trucks use the 46 to move goods and produce (e.g., lettuce from Salinas). My guess is that this location will morph to include Tesla Semi charging at some point.

Nope, it really seems like you are looking at this through rose colored glasses that filter out reality. Using massive amounts of acreage for photovoltaic power generation is a waste of land. Land humanity doesn't have enough of on earth. From a land use perspective it makes a lot more sense to get multiple returns from every square foot. In part that means solar on top of structures and parking lots. Beyond all of that idle land is not waste it has a direct impact on the environment. As far as what people like or don't like on their roofs, we already suffer from a lot of stupid rules that already apply to roofs. Some regulations reject antennas, some demand lightening arrestors other prohibit them. Demanding power efficiency it nothing new and using power that hits roof is part of being efficient. There was a time when putting insulation in a house was looked upon as odd, today most people wouldn't even consider an uninsulated house. All it takes is a change of mindset and you wouldn't even be able to sell a house with out some solar power.

🤔 the off grid part could mean its not getting power from the grid, only Sun and battery, but able to send power to grid if needed... More of these are company and already existing, Tels is just adding to their corporate dominance

Um, what? And you're just making up nonsense with out any facts or proof. All I am saying is, the company that is doing this on grid, wouls also know how to do it off grid, CLEARLY it makes SOME sense to have it still connect to the grid for getting rid of its excess energy.. But if you can literally build an 100% true no grid electric power and storage yourself, surely Tesla can to dude.. Also, are you really that inept, waste of land? So instead of solar you want what caol or oil plant there instead? Because to you that better for the environment??

These are replacing the old ones in Europe, but unfortunately for a strange reason the US Model doesn’t work in any of them, but it does in the old ones. Does anyone know why Tesla is blocking access to non European ones?

lmao. China is the global leader in solar power. Keep swallowing lobbyists propaganda though

What the absolute F are you talking about? Because it sure as all get out isn't related to what I said.

nothing about the panels was shit and the buyers weren’t unsuspecting. US stuff was just overpriced and gov protected them

I'm not sure how many different ways you can come up with to attempt to convince me you have no idea what you're talking about, but you are welcome to stop at any point because I get it - you have no idea what you're talking about.

Some states are considering bills to make this mandatory. Drew Banghart over at West Liberty University in Pittsburgh has an article about it.

Lost Hills gunna be getting quite a bit more travelers than usual now. Have a trip planned to Pismo Beach from Fresno soon. Might stop here on the way just to check it out!

Given the location, it's also likely well under 1.5 MW from like 10 pm to 7 am, so that's 9 hours they can be recharging the batteries for.

the panels over the cars is like 5% of the total panels....

Maybe less, the panels cover 30 acres!

Can confirm. I've had solar on my roof for 7 years and only cleaned them once after a nasty wildfire (just sprayed them with a hose from the ground). Even then although they looked covered in ash, a lot of light was still getting through because the power only increased about 10% from ash covered to sparkling clean. That was also after about 8 months since the last rain.

Australia has solar figured out much better than most of the world. When I got mine installed 7 years ago in California I paid about 3x what it would cost in Australia.

The title is wrong, it has a 1.5MW grid connection. You're right that is better to have a grid connection so they don't have to oversize everything for the extreme edge cases. My guess is this will mostly apply for Thanksgiving, Christmas, & New Year's holidays when lots of people drive and there isn't as much sun. In darker months with high demand they can draw a constant 1.5MW to slowly charge the 30MWh of batteries. That way they can almost fill up overnight and slowly discharge during the day during peak travel while still drawing up to 1.5MW + a few MW of solar. ETA: Like you mentioned elsewhere, the grid connection also allows them to sell the excess once the batteries are fully charged which is better for everyone.

The article lists it at 11MW total, so enough to charge 44 cars at once at 250KW at peak solar directly from the panels. If the charger utilization is 1/4 of the peak averaged over time (because of car switching time, reduced charge at high SOC and issue time) you get to 176 cars at a time off just the solar at mid day.

For a commercial system it costs about $1/W (possibly less since they produce the panels themselves). It's 11MW which would cost about $11 million. 10 Megapacks might cost Tesla about $20 million (rough estimate), 30 acres of land could add a few more million, so round up to $40 million extra over a non-solar location. In that area you get about 1,400 hours worth of full power daylight/year which works out to 15GWh. At 50c/kWh that's $7.5 million in electricity savings per year if all the solar energy was used to charge. That would be a little over 5 year break even. With half utilization you'd take about 10 years. Pretty typical for a solar install. There could also be significant savings by cutting the grid connection size by an order of magnitude. PG&E probably couldn't even support a site of this size in this location without millions in grid upgrades and years of delay which factors into the return timeline too.

We have a tax cut problem not a spending problem. Taxes cuts for the rich are always made permanent, and tax cuts for the middle class are always temporary. I can't wait for MAGA to realize they've been had, and angrily demand those 1950's 1960's upper tax brackets be reinstated, and suddenly we'd be flush with money. Hell, all we have to do is restore the upper tax brackets that still remained under Bush v1 or Clinton, and we'd be golden. Musk himself plays the "I borrow against my stock options that's not income" game. He doesn't care a bit since he doesn't pay taxes, except that one time or so he's paid gains on stocks. It's funny to hear fiscally conservative folk not concede they voted to lift the debt ceiling and add trillions to the debt.

Those upper tax brackets simply do not pull in as much money as people think. As for the current tax changes that have been implemented we will have to wait and see who takes them away. Hint it will not be the MAGA crowd. Just consider what the ability to claim car interest for the common tax payer. That is a huge win for the working man both because it saves people that need it money and because it is directly designed to spur the economy where it is needed. Even if they don't buy a car this will benefit many people involved in the auto industry. That is just one point with respect to BBB, I don't think you realize how much this bill will benefit the average American

What particular area are you at? You can try to vote and propose for locations: [https://www.tesla.com/supercharger-voting](https://www.tesla.com/supercharger-voting) Outside of the grain belt, there is generally a lot of chargers [https://supercharge.info/map](https://supercharge.info/map)