Massive Tesla Solar Powered EV Charging Station in Barstow California

[Lt.Dan]

The way I see is: Imagine in the next few years, everyone is going to install solar panels at their homes and everyone is capable to install their own charging stations at their own homes. Then nobody will go there.

Until someone needs to take a road trip.

They most certainly have batteries on site some place, just prob doesn’t have the marketing wank advertising mega pack).

That many chargers all charging at max output has huge huge demand, the size of a decent size town, 5-10mw, by using batteries they are able to clip their peak demand (and peak demand charge by the utility).

There are maybe a dozen Tesla chargers in NH both sides of i93 and have been there for 7 years or so, about 5 years ago they installed a battery to shave peak demand and save costs.

I would imagine Tesla would want to advertise that loud and proud, no? Seems like they would want everyone to know.

 

[740GLE]

Until someone needs to take a road trip.

I would imagine Tesla would want to advertise that loud and proud, no? Seems like they would want everyone to know.

Tesla already has their name on the chargers all over that place do the need more?

My guess is the utility scale mega packs are designed for industrial use and never have that marketing stuff. At least that’s what I’ve seen in images when that Australia battery farm had that fire issue back in 2021.

 

[Vigo]

Cool pics, thanks for sharing.

Aluminum wire IS in home improvement stores in the form of ‘underground feeder’ i believe. I have about 50 feet of it going from where my inverters are installed, over to where my house panel is.

There is so much hate for Elon Musk on the internet, and while admittedly i dont know all that much about the whys, I do suspect its because people are paying too much attention to the wrong things (nut-swinging off billionaires and celebrities) and i hold a pretty firm opinion that no matter what kind of asshole he is in ‘the work environment’ or his online presence, in the future we’re going to wish we could have swapped out some really nice, cool 2023 people for more Elon Musks. ?‍

Nobody is going to look back and talk about how cool Mr Vigo was, but i have a feeling a LOT of people are going to look back at Elon Musk and ask ‘why werent they listening?’.

 

[740GLE]

What is that fluid reservoir tank in that 250kW charger for?

Cooling

 

[Mattb4]

Looks pretty snazzy. Now all it needs is a convenience store with restaurant and perhaps a theater for people to while away the time while waiting to be charged. Perhaps a miniature golf course, video arcade, brothel, hair stylist, masseuse, strolling minstrels, impromptu street performers and such to make the time go by.

 

[hwy17]

What is that fluid reservoir tank in that 250kW charger for?

Tesla loves liquid cooling and applies it widely. Even their little residential grid tied 3.6kw inverter is liquid cooled.

It's one of those things that I would've said is too fraught with downsides in reality, like how liquid cooling never took off for servers. But I guess they've got the hang of it. It really shows their automotive design origins being applied to electrical: Need cooling? Use a radiator!

 

[740GLE]

Cool pics, thanks for sharing.

Aluminum wire IS in home improvement stores in the form of ‘underground feeder’ i believe. I have about 50 feet of it going from where my inverters are installed, over to where my house panel is.

There is so much hate for Elon Musk on the internet, and while admittedly i dont know all that much about the whys, I do suspect its because people are paying too much attention to the wrong things (nut-swinging off billionaires and celebrities) and i hold a pretty firm opinion that no matter what kind of asshole he is in ‘the work environment’ or his online presence, in the future we’re going to wish we could have swapped out some really nice, cool 2023 people for more Elon Musks. ?‍

Nobody is going to look back and talk about how cool Mr Vigo was, but i have a feeling a LOT of people are going to look back at Elon Musk and ask ‘why werent they listening?’.

IMO over promise and under deliver over shadows the things that get knocked out of the park.

The Boaring Co?
Tesla Roadster ver 2?
Cyber Truck?
Solar Roof?
Tesla Semi?

These thing suck the air out of the room for how amazing the charging infrastructure is, cause quite frankly charging isn’t as “sexy”.

If you just focus on success it’s amazing at what they’ve done in this short of a time.

 

[HighTechLab]

Jackson, CA supercharging station in the parking lot of Mel's Diner has a megapack installed. I tried finding my pictures of it, but I think that's on my old phone.

 

[JRH]

Cool pics, thanks for sharing.

Aluminum wire IS in home improvement stores in the form of ‘underground feeder’ i believe. I have about 50 feet of it going from where my inverters are installed, over to where my house panel is.

There is so much hate for Elon Musk on the internet, and while admittedly i dont know all that much about the whys, I do suspect its because people are paying too much attention to the wrong things (nut-swinging off billionaires and celebrities) and i hold a pretty firm opinion that no matter what kind of asshole he is in ‘the work environment’ or his online presence, in the future we’re going to wish we could have swapped out some really nice, cool 2023 people for more Elon Musks. ?‍

Nobody is going to look back and talk about how cool Mr Vigo was, but i have a feeling a LOT of people are going to look back at Elon Musk and ask ‘why werent they listening?’.

You are correct… losers love to hate winners …and winners don’t really care what losers think…
Go Elon…?
in the 50s- 60s 70s and even 80s most Americans we’re proud of adventurous thinkers ,doers and tech hero’s…even if some failed in their efforts.. Not Today….!
Todays internet raised people can be cynical beyond all reason or logic….for no reason..
it’s sad to witness.

 

[Hedges]

The way I see is: Imagine in the next few years, everyone is going to install solar panels at their homes and everyone is capable to install their own charging stations at their own homes. Then nobody will go there.

To avoid range anxiety on long trips.
Until we get the "Air B&B" or "Car Share" of home charging.
Do any home chargers support a billing mechanism?

Why seal the gaps? They serve as expansion joints!

Use compressible rubber gaskets.

They most certainly have batteries on site some place, just prob doesn’t have the marketing wank advertising mega pack).

That many chargers all charging at max output has huge huge demand, the size of a decent size town, 5-10mw, by using batteries they are able to clip their peak demand (and peak demand charge by the utility).

Why add batteries? Just make use off all the 4-wheeled batteries brought there by customers
(rob Peter to pay Paul. Based on AI analysis of driving/parking habits.)

 

[Sanwizard]

You are correct… losers love to hate winners …and winners don’t really care what losers think…
Go Elon…?
in the 50s- 60s 70s and even 80s most Americans we’re proud of adventurous thinkers ,doers and tech hero’s…even if some failed in their efforts.. Not Today….!
Todays internet raised people can be cynical beyond all reason or logic….for no reason..
it’s sad to witness.

No interpersonal or leadership skills. We need the boy scouts and girl scouts, and Church, and playing outside to come back into the culture. We need risk takers and leaders, not pronouns and safe spaces.
More John Wayne and Elon
Less BLM, Antifa, CRT, ESG, and DEI. Individual merit versus race, class, and sexual depravity.

 

[timselectric]

Whats in the big white cabinets?

DC fast charging modules.
3 phase transformer with rectified DC output.

 

[hwy17]

I thought 3 phases combined to make a perfectly smooth total power output. But apparently 3 phase rectified does have a frequency I wonder what I'm not getting. I guess it's perfectly smooth RMS, but not the peaks.

 

[dougbert]

You are correct… losers love to hate winners …and winners don’t really care what losers think…
Go Elon…?
in the 50s- 60s 70s and even 80s most Americans we’re proud of adventurous thinkers ,doers and tech hero’s…even if some failed in their efforts.. Not Today….!
Todays internet raised people can be cynical beyond all reason or logic….for no reason..
it’s sad to witness.

crabs in a pot of water..... no one is allowed to get out if I can't

 

[Hedges]

I thought 3 phases combined to make a perfectly smooth total power output. But apparently 3 phase rectified does have a frequency I wonder what I'm not getting. I guess it's perfectly smooth RMS, but not the peaks.

You've got the right idea, but needs a different implementation.

3-phase into resistive load (Wye or Delta) is absolutely flat power.

3-phase into rectifiers and capacitor has ripple, harmonics, PF << 1.0 (non-linear load), but no zero power points like single/split phase.

What's needed is PF-corrected front end, which uses high frequency switching boost converter to synthesize a resistive load, charging a capacitor to Vpeak or higher.

I'm working with those run from single phase, and have tried paralleling either their 48VDC outputs or their 360VDC intermediate busses, but without getting output as ripple-free as a quality single-phase SMPS. (I don't care about input PF in this case, rather output.)

What I don't have, but I think is available, is PF corrected 3-phase supply.

I've got some single phase Lambda PFC modules, one is being tried at work and my own I plan to feed into VFD for pool pump. In that application I don't care about smoothing power delivery, but I want to improve harmonics and PF because they upset my inverters when grid is down.

 

[timselectric]

What he said, I think. lol

 

[dougbert]

What he said, I think. lol

sounds good to me............(under breath: now I know why I went into software)

 

[Hedges]

They made us do the calculus by hand for power of these waveforms (the upper waveforms), in an SMPS course.



That, I could handle. FFT and Laplace I choked on. DSP is software, too!

(under breath: now I know why I went into software)

Would that include firmware for switch-mode power supplies?

 

[niktak11]

The way I see is: Imagine in the next few years, everyone is going to install solar panels at their homes and everyone is capable to install their own charging stations at their own homes. Then nobody will go there.

These are more for road trips than for daily charging

 

[Yurtdweller]

Looks pretty snazzy. Now all it needs is a convenience store with restaurant and perhaps a theater for people to while away the time while waiting to be charged. Perhaps a miniature golf course, video arcade, brothel, hair stylist, masseuse, strolling minstrels, impromptu street performers and such to make the time go by.

I keep trying to talk the Renfaires that I work at into installing solar. The huge parking lots sit empty most of the year. People could park and party in the shade, operating costs would be cut, and the rest of the year would be pure profit. Imagine you're on a an xc road trip, and you pull off the charge your battery and go see some shows! Epic.