Tesla’s interest in renewable energy isn’t new and we’ve seen the company come up with all kinds of ways to take advantage of solar, such as their solar roof tiles and the Powerwall Home Battery. However it looks like Tesla is also interested in the commercial application of solar energy as it has unveiled a new solar energy station that could power Hawaii at night.
Dubbed the Kapaia project, this will see Tesla use Powerpacks built at the Gigafactory and will see the combination of a 13MW SolarCity farm and 53MWh Tesla Powerpack station on the island of Kauai. During the day, the energy station will draw and store power from the sun, and release it at night where it will help to provide energy to Hawaii.
However this energy station won’t completely remove Hawaii’s dependency on fossil fuels, but it should help to reduce their consumption, thanks to other green and sustainable efforts that come in the form of using wind and biomass. This is also part of Hawaii’s plan to to be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2045.
It has been estimated that the Kapaia project should reduce the use of fossil fuels by 1.6 million gallons a year. According to Tesla CTO, JB Straubel, “This is the first time that solar energy can be delivered very reliably into the night. That’s the key to scaling renewable energies up.”