Tesla seems to have begun installing the world’s largest rooftop pv system. Images shown on BuildingTesla.com (found via Electrek) show what looks like a solar panel installation just beginning.
pv magazine has sent an email to Tesla asking for a comment and will update once we have new information.
At first glance, the ’70MW’ value on a 43 acre rooftop seems like a strong number. The structure is projected to have a 1.9 million square foot footprint. Roughly, 100,000 pv modules – if lain flat, and fairly tight – would fill that space up. A high-efficiency product from solar panel partner Panasonic at 325W would allow for a 32.5MW installation, under 1/2 of the projected 70MW project.
Per Tesla’s description of the project:
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.
Reading into that quote just a bit we see an out for the rooftop being less than 70MW – if it were built in combination with a ground installation.
The current world’s largest pv rooftop installation on a single roof is an 11.5MW plant in India on a 42 acre rooftop. That rooftop is part of a larger 19.5 MW, 82-acre project spread across eight rooftops.
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