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Look at the photo of the Hawthorne Supercharger Station on the Tesla Motors website.

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Benz

Active Member
Nov 15, 2012
1,905
20
Netherlands
Look at the photo of the Hawthorne Supercharger Station on the Tesla Motors website.

We see 4 Tesla Model S's parked under a canopy setup, with a flat roof, standing on 6 pillars.
And on the roof of this canopy we see that there have been installed 100 solar panels (5 x 20).

Under the roof we see parking lots.
The 4 parking lots on the right side are in use by 4 Tesla Model S's.

And we can clearly see that that on both the left side and also on the right side of the (most left) pillar, there are 2 parking lots that are not in use.

The parking lot on the right side of the (most left) pillar is clearly under the roof of the canopy.
But is the parking lot on the left side of the (most left) pillar under the roof of the canopy as well?

Meaning, are all 6 parking lots under the roof of the canopy, or are only 5 parking lots under the roof of the canopy?
 
All six are under canopy. Left side view:

8552018196_1d67109a80.jpg
 
Very good.
Thank you very much.
This is what I wanted to know.

That means that on top of a canopy with 6 parking lots underneath it there can be installed 100 solar panels (5 x 20).

Now I would like to know how much solar power can be generated with these 100 solar panels in a day/week/month/year?

If we would make the following calculation:

We assume that each solar panel will produce on average 200W per hour.
We assume that there is on average 5 hours of sunlight per day.

Then per day we should get: 200W x 5 hours = 1kWh per solar panel.
100 solar panels would result in 100kWh per day.
In 1 week we would get 700kWh.
And in 1 month (30 days) we would get 3 mWh.
And in 1 year (365 days) we would get 36.5 mWh.

If each Tesla Model S would charge up 50kwh, then on one day you could charge 2 Tesla Model S's.
That is not much.
 
Last edited:
Very good.
Thank you very much.
This is what I wanted to know.

That means that on top of a canopy with 6 parking lots underneath it there can be installed 100 solar panels (5 x 20).

Now I would like to know how much solar power can be generated with these 100 solar panels in a day/week/month/year?

If we would make the following calculation:

We assume that each solar panel will produce on average 200W per hour.
We assume that there is on average 5 hours of sunlight per day.

Then per day we should get: 200W x 5 hours = 1kWh per solar panel.
100 solar panels would result in 100kWh per day.
In 1 week we would get 700kWh.
And in 1 month (30 days) we would get 3 mWh.
And in 1 year (365 days) we would get 36.5 mWh.

If each Tesla Model S would charge up 50kwh, then on one day you could charge 2 Tesla Model S's.
That is not much.

I think a couple of things with the math. You should assume the panels are 250W (they're the ideal price point right now), and cars charge 40kWh on average (50 miles to 200 mile of displayed range average). If you charge more than that it's annoyingly slow. So then it's a little over 3 cars per day.

But it does mean in 1 weekend you can charge 21 Model S's. Still not that much. However, I think that (expanding number of solar panels) is the primary reason that Tesla is moving to the 2-cars-per-charger model to the 4-cars-per-charger model. So that means in 1 weekend you can charge 42 Model S's.

Since that would be from only 3 chargers, 42 over a 2 day period starts approaching the peak saturation point of the chargers anyway.
 
Very good.
Thank you very much.
This is what I wanted to know.

That means that on top of a canopy with 6 parking lots underneath it there can be installed 100 solar panels (5 x 20).

Now I would like to know how much solar power can be generated with these 100 solar panels in a day/week/month/year?

If we would make the following calculation:

We assume that each solar panel will produce on average 200W per hour.
We assume that there is on average 5 hours of sunlight per day.

Then per day we should get: 200W x 5 hours = 1kWh per solar panel.
100 solar panels would result in 100kWh per day.
In 1 week we would get 700kWh.
And in 1 month (30 days) we would get 3 mWh.
And in 1 year (365 days) we would get 36.5 mWh.

If each Tesla Model S would charge up 50kwh, then on one day you could charge 2 Tesla Model S's.
That is not much.

Yes, this pretty accurate, we are in California approx 400 miles North of Hawthorne, our 25kw system has 108 panels and provides right around 38,000kwh a year or just over 100 kwh a day (averaged).
 
With time-of-day pricing, if the cars are charged at night, then you can charge about twice as many as your calculations and still end up with a net bill of zero (rough numbers, from memory). Of course, some are charged during the day and some at night, so you'll end up somewhere between the two figures.
 
I forgot about that. WA has some fairly crazy REAP incentives.

If you use a solar module and inverter made in WA state, you can sell power for $0.54 / kWh, and buy it back for $0.10 / kWh. (With non-WA solar, you can sell for $0.15 / kWh).

I have no idea why they're trying to force manufacturing of the components over here... but alas.