
A Supercharging Milestone - ph0rque
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/supercharging-milestone
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ChuckMcM
Nice, 168K gallons a month is 5600 a day (assuming 30 day months) or 295
barrels of oil per day [1]. You could supply the grid with the equivalent MW
used by the entire super charging network with one solar thermal plant [2]

[1]
[http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=24&t=10](http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=24&t=10)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility)
\-- had a look at this over the 4th of July weekend, its a pretty neat
facility.

~~~
plorg
If I'm reading the figure in the article correctly, 1GWh/month of electricity
works out to something like 1.34 MW average load. That much electricity could
be supplied by a total of three (1.5MW nameplate) utility-scale wind turbines,
at least if you assume the capacity factor (0.3-0.35) seen in the upper
midwest.

Put differently, that is about 1/10 of the average electricity consumption of
the (midwestern, state) university where I studied.

~~~
ChuckMcM
They edited it, it used to say it had produced a 1 GWh _to date_ from all
chargers. I wonder if they took that out because it was wrong or because it
didn't seem impressive enough?

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NDizzle
Are there any stats on where each supercharging station receives its power?
Things like the percentage of power supplied to the supercharging station by
fossil fuels.

~~~
timdorr
They are currently all grid-powered, but the long-term plan is to install
solar canopies at all locations (provided by Elon's other company, SolarCity)
to offset the power usage. They even plan on making it a profit center for the
business eventually.

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Qiasfah
Do any of these stations get busy enough during peak hours so that you have to
wait in line for a charging spot?

This happens even at gas stations, but at least you don't have to wait 20
minutes!

~~~
sargun
It's happened to me once or twice, surprisingly mostly at Fremont (the
factory). All the supercharging stations have data. When the superchargers
were introduced to owners, the idea was that the car (also cellular / data-
enabled) would know when it's likely to get to the supercharger, and reserve a
timeslot at the charging station. Additionally, there were plans to make it so
you could unlock / lock the chargers remotely, and potentially have single
chargers able to reach more than one car.

All of this is possible, it's just a matter of time of if, and when it becomes
reasonable to go implement it.

~~~
beltex
Also, battery swaps, which is faster than filling a tank of gas (though not
free), will help. As Musk put it, when you'd come to a supercharger station,
it be a decision between faster (battery swap) or free (supercharger).

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5V0vL3nnHY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5V0vL3nnHY)

~~~
lifeformed
I wonder how much a battery swap would cost?

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aylons
Elon Musk is losing his nerdiness. He should have waited for the 1.21GWh
milestone.

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sbierwagen
Have they rolled out battery swapping yet?

~~~
phkahler
Battery swapping is dumb. It's like propane tank exchange, except the price is
reversed. With propane the tank is relatively cheap and you don't care so much
if you get somebody elses used one. With battery costing in the neighborhood
of $10K it's a bit different. OTOH if they were to automatically recycle the
ones with diminished capacity it may be somewhat more acceptable. But doesn't
it still seem a bit odd?

~~~
sbierwagen
DC fast charging like in the supercharger is kinda hard on the battery. It
doesn't void the warranty, of course, because then Tesla would be in the
ridiculous position of stating that their own chargers damage their cars, but
you shouldn't be doing it very often. With battery swapping, you can charge
the battery nice and slow.

