Tesla's Gigafactory Will Have The Largest Solar Rooftop

Jan 20, 2017

Stakeholders are raising their hopes as Tesla's recent announcement regarding its solar rooftop installation plans are now on track.

Earlier in January, Tesla made an announcement that battery production for its Gigafactory (which may be known as GF1) had begun in Nevada.

"Once complete, we expect the Gigafactory to be the biggest building in the world," announced the company at the time.

Tesla, however, did not elaborate on its plans but now, according to a report obtained by Electrek, on a recent investor tour meant for investors the company gave a handout which has shed light on the company's plans.

The document reveals that the factory's rooftop will feature a huge 70-megawatt solar rooftop array, which would be the world's biggest.

"GF1 is an all-electric factory with no fossil fuels (natural gas or petroleum) directly consumed. We will be using 100% sustainable energy through a combination of a 70 MW solar rooftop array and solar ground installations. The solar rooftop array is ~7x larger than the largest rooftop solar system installed today," revealed the handout.

Without sparking much controversy, the merger between solar power firm SolarCity and electric automaker Tesla resulted in the beginning of the production of the world's largest solar panel facility. It is strongly believed that the facility's rooftop solar panels will be backed by SolarCity.

Tesla's Strategy

The current strategy for the facility is a critical part of Tesla's stated objective of a "whole net-zero energy facility." Through the energy factory, the company plans to produce as less or as more electricity than what is used.

The primary objective of the firm is to avoid direct usage of any kind of fossil fuel and instead, generate most of the facility power through solar installation. In case of any additional power remaining through the photovoltaic cells, the company plans to store it in Tesla's Powerpack storage batteries for consumption at the right time. Tesla stated that running the facility completely on solar power will result in better efficiency without carbon emissions.

Tesla will also have a closed loop water re-circulation system through which it plans to minimize usage of fresh water by up to 80 percent, when compared to conventional processes. Most of Tesla's battery cells would also get recycled and converted to new cells with the help of an onsite facility for battery reprocessing.

Construction of the massive energy facility, which is still in progress, is expected to be completed by 2018. After the factory becomes fully functional in 2018, the company will start production processes for 35 Gigawatt-hours worth of batteries annually which would be sufficient for powering more than 500,000 Model 3 cars.

Source: Tech Times