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Tesla To Power Gigafactory With World's Largest Solar Rooftop Installation (inhabitat.com)

Last week, Tesla announced that its Gigafactory has begun mass production of lithium-ion battery cells in Nevada. But the company failed to mention one thrilling detail in their January 4 announcement: the Gigafactory could be powered by the world's largest solar rooftop installation. According to an investor handout, a 70-megawatt (MW) solar array along with ground solar panels could let the factory operate entirely on clean energy. Inhabitat reports: The 70 MW solar array would be around seven times larger than any rooftop arrays currently installed, according to Tesla's exciting handout released by Electrek and confirmed as genuine by The Verge. The rooftop array currently boasting the title of world's largest is a 11.5 MW installation in India. The United States' biggest rooftop array is a 10 MW array atop a California Whirlpool distribution center. SolarCity will likely manufacture the solar panels, according to The Verge, as Tesla acquired the solar energy company in November. Powerpacks will store any excess energy generated by the vast solar installation. Tesla said in the handout the "all-electric" factory will be able to run with greater efficiency and will produce zero carbon emissions. Heating and water use at the Gigafactory will also be sustainable. In the handout, Tesla said a large part of heating for the building would come from waste heat obtained from production processes. Also, "Gigafactory's closed-loop water supply system uses six different treatment systems to efficiently re-circulate about 1.5 million liters (that's around 400,000 gallons) of water, representing an 80 percent reduction in fresh water usage compared with standard processes." Tesla even said they're building a recycling facility at the Gigafactory that will be able to "safely reprocess" battery cells, packs, and modules to obtain metal usable in new cells.

3 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But what if the sun isn't shining? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Solar isn't baseload. They'd need some sort of crazy energy storage device.

    Duh. FTS: "Powerpacks will store any excess energy generated by the vast solar installation."

    The real question is where on earth they're going to find such a number of "powerpacks". I mean, can you imagine the size of the factory you'd need just to make the batteries to support this, and how would they ever power such a place?!!!!

  2. Re:fuck this by youngone · · Score: 5, Informative
    AC is definitely a troll. Oil and coal get huge subsidies. We've been over it on slashdot before.

    https://www.theguardian.com/en...

  3. Re:fuck this by haruchai · · Score: 5, Informative

    You still think a "coal plant" belches out black soot and smoke don't you?

    Educate yourself. Fossil plants use baghouses, dry sorbent injection, activated carbon, flue gas desulfurization, selective catalytic reduction, among other technologies to clean up emissions. Mostly what you see today is water vapor.

    Yeah no one wants a power plant near them, but happy to use the electricity it generates. Ignorance is bliss.

    The only reason that coal plants use *any* of those technologies is because they were FORCED. And they spent DECADES resisting any attempts to curb their pollution. Yes, they're cleaner than ever but they were fucking nasty for the better part of my life.
    If Trump disbands the EPA, they'll happily go back to spewing their shite directly into your air & water with a hearty fuck-u-and-blow-me

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body