Tesla has officially launched its new generation electric vehicle charging station project “Oasis”, which it has been working on for a long time. The company’s new Supercharger facility in Lost Hills, California, can operate completely off-grid with its integrated solar farm and battery storage system.

The Oasis charging station has started service!

When Tesla’s Supercharger network was first established, the company announced that solar panels and batteries would be integrated into the stations. CEO Elon Musk said that most stations would be built to operate off-grid. However, in the intervening years, only a limited number of stations had small-scale solar panel systems installed, and this vision had not fully come true.

In 2016, Musk announced that the necessary technological components were now ready and that this goal would be achieved with the Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2 and SolarCity integration. Over time, the Powerpack product was replaced by the Megapack, while the charging network entered the transition process to V4 stations. However, despite all these developments, the wide-scale dissemination of solar energy and battery integration has been put on hold until now.

Last year, Tesla announced the development of a new Supercharger model called “Oasis.” This model was introduced as a structure that can operate independently of the grid, with a solar farm and energy storage units.

Now, this system has started operating for the first time. The Oasis project, established in the Lost Hills region, has a total of 168 charging units, half of which are actively used. This number makes the station one of the largest Tesla Supercharger facilities in the world.

However, the main element that makes Oasis unique is its integrated energy infrastructure. The facility is equipped with 11 megawatt solar panels spread over an area of ​​30 acres. On the energy storage side, 10 Tesla Megapacks are used. The total energy storage capacity of these units is at the level of 39 megawatt-hours. The facility is currently operating completely independently of the grid.