I noticed the nice little artist's rendering showing the proposed new supercharger sites. Obviously we don't expect them all to look like that, but it got me thinking.
If they DID make the covered stalls with solar power and tossed in some of their industrial battery packs, would that even help at all? I'm no engineer, but given the approximate surface area to be covered in solar panels, how much (best case) energy could they harvest and store in powerpacks? Would that offset enough of the demand to lower their overall costs of providing electricity? Would their costs to supply the equipment exceed the benefits? I know they don't have to pay retail obviously but still there would have to be a rather significant up front expense to doing this.
Oh, and I LOVE the "lounge" idea as drawn, I'd assume bathrooms on site and possibly renting the facility as a "convenience store" so it would be just like a modern day gas station and you could rest up and get snacks while charging.
If they DID make the covered stalls with solar power and tossed in some of their industrial battery packs, would that even help at all? I'm no engineer, but given the approximate surface area to be covered in solar panels, how much (best case) energy could they harvest and store in powerpacks? Would that offset enough of the demand to lower their overall costs of providing electricity? Would their costs to supply the equipment exceed the benefits? I know they don't have to pay retail obviously but still there would have to be a rather significant up front expense to doing this.
Oh, and I LOVE the "lounge" idea as drawn, I'd assume bathrooms on site and possibly renting the facility as a "convenience store" so it would be just like a modern day gas station and you could rest up and get snacks while charging.