I think the presumption is energy is dumped to battery storage (referencing Elon's bit about Solar City and Tesla joining forces in some projects), from which you could quick charge. Of course, the total QC available depends on the battery storage.
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Exciting Charging Announcement Speculation
- Thread starter rlawson4
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- Tesla Inc.
dhrivnak
Active Member
Been there and done that. At the maximum 40 amps you are getting 8.8 KW. So a Model S on empty would take 10 hours to fill up assuming you brought your NEMA 14-50 adapter. And remember unless the weather is nice the heat and A/C do not work while charging, at least not in a Roadster. So it makes for a long stop over.
gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
Not a problem with the Model S though. There's the ability to 'pre-condition' the cabin to the desired temp while plugged in.
Rumbles
Sig #540
Kevin, I should have been more clear. What the image evoked for me is that Telsa could well leverage the relationship with Solar City to create a structure that could be installed in parking lots of target destinations (eg Starbucks, Malls, etc). The structure would generate electricity all day long via the solar panels -- presumably pushing back on the grid. The supercharger becomes an added benefit, rather than the focus. The structures would pay for themselves over some period of time... Indeed I believe solar city's model is to absorbe the capital cost and to lease them. The advantage of this approach is that a target destination does not have to justify the expenditure based on the hope that a Telsa will happen by occasionally. This allows a broad rollout far more quickly. Finally, it is worth outing that an area the size of a parking space can provide enough energy to recharge a car every day or so. Boad distribution / low utilization would mean that the fleet would be predominately charged via the sun!
I don't know enough to say whether or not this all works on a technical level, but I like the idea. Supercharger network AND it's all from renewable energy. Stops them from having to negotiate who pays the electricity bills #1 and #2 helps shut those up talking about how the car is dirty at the other end of the line. They can show that this can be the case everywhere, and the cars can eventually runs rom 100% clean energy.
The way I see it, you need Superchargers at two places. A.) along interstates for long trips. And B.) at places that attract relatively large crowds (and by people from far distances) (e.g. amusement parks, stadiums, parks, monuments, downtown of major cities).
The reason you need B.) is for the simple fact that you'll already be spending a lot of time with your car parked at this attraction. Imagine you drive near the range limit of your Model S with your family to a park in the morning. You spend several hours during the day there, only to have to spend another 45 minutes charging the car after you start to head home. Even if that Supercharger is just 10 miles away from the park along an interstate, you still are faced with two choices. Either spend the 45 minutes charging prior to arriving at the park, or spend the 45 minutes after. This is unfortunate considering how this could have been avoided had there been a charger at the actual attraction.
The reason you need B.) is for the simple fact that you'll already be spending a lot of time with your car parked at this attraction. Imagine you drive near the range limit of your Model S with your family to a park in the morning. You spend several hours during the day there, only to have to spend another 45 minutes charging the car after you start to head home. Even if that Supercharger is just 10 miles away from the park along an interstate, you still are faced with two choices. Either spend the 45 minutes charging prior to arriving at the park, or spend the 45 minutes after. This is unfortunate considering how this could have been avoided had there been a charger at the actual attraction.
You just need 240VAC 80A charging at these locations! No need for expensive DC charging solutions. If you park for more than 3 hours this will be better than a super charger.
Right. I'd probably rather have more slow chargers (since there will be crowds at these places) than just one or two DC fast chargers.
Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense and is a good idea but I am pretty sure it is not practical.
I believe that the payout for the solar and structures is about 7 years in California at our rates. Not impractical at all!
gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
Absolutely. And, the panels wouldn't need much by way of maintenance (maybe a hosedown or two each year to get rid of dust, pollen, leaves etc.). Calif. (and certainly a few other states such as Texas and Florida) has the sun and the open space too to justify installing those along interstates, near national parks, etc.
Only trouble with SolarCity in particular is that they install separate bulky inverters (that are prone to failure, in my personal experience) rather than micro-inverters up near the panels themselves (that some other solar PV installers seem to go for).
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
AND they can probably get panels in bulk from SolarCity at close to cost, so payoff should be even sooner than that. Likely they can get the business hosting the charger to even subsidize a small fraction of the cost, which would help even more.
By hooking in to feed the grid you eliminate the costly battery storage solution at each space while still claiming zero emissions. Sounds like a win if the costs are feasible...and I think they would be. As I recall I think we calculated that a mostly nationwide charging network could be installed in the US for about $10M on the cheap end. If Tesla sunk 3 times that for a solar solution, it would still easily be worth it for the increased sales.
Thanks all. Just to clarify my post I was not implying that the purchase of the panels was impractical. What I meant was that the panels would really not be capable of collecting enough juice fast enough to serve customers coming in to charge. Perhaps just to store and sell back to the utility is great but can this actually be used to charge a car ?
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
Most people are not thinking to directly charge, but instead to give a net energy footprint of zero or even to have a net energy surplus...which is definitely doable. That way, even if a car isn't using the space for charging (or doesn't for many days), it's generating and giving back to the grid.
Each one of those structures likely produces 250 to 350 Kwh per day (guessing) which would be enough to charge quite a few EV's!
I would think one hurdle at a time is enough to try to overcome. I.e. let's get the chargers out there and available first. Then worry about changing how the energy supplied to them is sourced. Hard enough to get some company (say the Outlet Mall company or McD or Starbucks) to agree to set up charge stations on their premises en masse. To ask them to set up a solar grid as well?
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