{"id":96507,"date":"2023-10-05T02:03:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T07:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=96507"},"modified":"2023-10-05T02:03:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T07:03:16","slug":"96507","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=96507","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Largest EV Charging Station In World Powered By Diesel-Powered Generators.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger station is an impressive beast. With 98 charging bays, the facility in Coalinga, California, is the largest charging station in the world. But to provide that kind of power takes something solar can\u2019t provide \u2014 diesel generators.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger station is an impressive beast. With 98 charging bays, the facility in Coalinga, California, is the largest charging station in the world.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Tesla CEO said that all Superchargers in the automaker\u2019s network were being converted to solar.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, almost all will disconnect from the electricity grid,\u201d Musk\u00a0posted<\/u><\/a> on X, formally known as Twitter.<\/p>\n

Superchargers charge vehicles up to the 80% sweet spot in as little as 20 minutes, but to provide that kind of power for nearly 100 bays takes something solar can\u2019t provide \u2014 diesel generators.<\/p>\n

Investigative journalist Edward Niedermeyer\u00a0discovered<\/u><\/a>\u00a0that the station was powered by diesel generators hidden behind a Shell station. Reporters at SF Gate\u00a0tried to find out<\/u><\/a>\u00a0how much of the station’s electricity was from the generators, but couldn\u2019t get a response from Tesla.<\/p>\n

The station isn\u2019t connected to any dedicated solar farms, which means that absent the diesel generators, the station is powered by California\u2019s grid.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Energy and Information Administration, in June 2023, natural gas supplied nearly 5,000 megawatt hours of electricity in California, whereas non-hydroelectric renewables supplied about 7,250 megawatt hours.<\/p>\n

Another Case\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Energy analyst and writer David Blackmon, author of the \u201cEnergy Transition Absurdities<\/u><\/a>,\u201d told Cowboy State Daily that the use of diesel-powered generators is not limited to the Harris Ranch station.<\/p>\n

He used to shop at a Whole Foods in Houston. The company had installed a charging station in front of the store for its customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the best parking spot in the lot, and it crowded out a bunch of handicap spaces,\u201d Blackmon said.<\/p>\n

He said there were diesel generators behind the store and whenever someone was using the chargers, the generators would kick on.<\/p>\n

Destabilized Grid\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Just as these charging stations find they can\u2019t run without some fossil fuel backup, the retirement of a coal-fired power plant in Kansas is\u00a0being delayed<\/u><\/a>\u00a0to accommodate the energy demands of an electric vehicle battery factory that\u2019s under construction.<\/p>\n

Blackmon said that these stories illustrate well the lack of thought going into the demands that will be placed on the grid with increasing amounts of electric vehicle adoption.<\/p>\n

As those demands pile on, U.S. energy policy pushes to remove coal, nuclear and natural gas from the grid.<\/p>\n

Blackmon said he watched all summer as the Texas grid, which operates separately from the rest of the county, nearly collapsed with the incessant heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe almost had blackouts on Aug. 24,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, told Cowboy State Daily that despite claims that wind and solar alone can power the grid, they lack the reliability needed to satisfy energy demand. So, parts of the country, such as Texas, are facing shortages.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdding the load required for electric vehicles and the transportation network to support them would exacerbate the looming shortages we already face in the near future if energy policies are not reformed,\u201d Steinmetz said.<\/p>\n

No Way Out<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Blackmon said that the footprint required to generate enough power to satisfy all energy needs with wind and solar is enormous. It\u2019s not just the wind farms, solar farms and battery factories, there are also thousands of miles of transmission lines to connect consumers with the power wherever it happens to be generated at any given moment.<\/p>\n

This calls into doubt Musk\u2019s plan to power charging stations off of solar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s what he wants, then he only wants the chargers to work six to eight hours a day. If they\u2019re purely powered by solar, there\u2019s just no way out of that,\u201d Blackmon said.<\/p>\n

Musk has made many exciting promises that so far haven\u2019t come to pass. Someone went to the trouble to make a\u00a0website<\/u><\/a>\u00a0documenting his pledges and how many days have passed since they were made.<\/p>\n

Musk has also been taken to task for his solar promises. Energy expert Alex Epstein ran a\u00a0fact check<\/u><\/a>\u00a0on Musk\u2019s claim that we could power the world with a small area of the Sahara Desert and \u201csome batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epstein calculated that enough battery storage to create a reliable grid would cost $590 trillion for the batteries alone. It doesn\u2019t include the cost of all the transmission infrastructure. And the batteries would have to be replaced every decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Largest EV Charging Station In World Powered By Diesel-Powered Generators. The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger station is an impressive beast. With 98 charging bays, the facility in Coalinga, California, is the largest charging station in the world. But to provide that kind of power takes something solar can\u2019t provide \u2014 diesel generators. The Harris Ranch … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-econuts","category-you-cant-make-this-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96508,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96507\/revisions\/96508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}