Tesla Says That Superchargers Will Be Powered By Renewable Energy In 2021 

Tesla has made an earth day commitment that flew under the radar but is pretty big for the future of electric cars. It says that its supercharger network of charging stations will be powered fully by renewable energy starting in 2021. This is a huge deal for electric cars as often EVs are criticised for their source of charge coming from energy derived from fossil fuels. While the vehicle doesn't burn fossil fuels and releases harmful gases, the root source that charges the battery is often derived from the grid that's dependent on fossil fuels, depending on the market. 

Justin Lange has shared that the supercharger network will be going carbon neutral

This is also the reason why Tesla has an alternative business that dabbles in the Powerwall, home battery pack and solar panels. Elon Musk founded SolarCity which he merged with Tesla in 2015 for this purpose. 

Musk has been a proponent of solar power at home and EVs for transportation because the entire widget enables a clean environment. Tesla's Justin Lange, its market lead for Superchargers revealed at the announcement that the company had delivered over 2. TWh of energy since the inception of the network. He also added that 8.3 billion emission-free miles were facilitated and saved 1264 million litres of gasoline while doing which has offset 6.6 billion pounds of Co2. 

Tesla also has some superchargers which are powered by solar energy, but most of its network is still drawing power from the grid and traditional non-renewable sources of energy. In Quebec, some Tesla superchargers are actually powered by hydropower electricity. 

This also comes on the back of Rivian's announcement of its own supercharger network which will be fully based on renewable energy. In 2017, Musk had also said that there were plans of decoupling superchargers from the grid with all of them getting solar energy and batteries of their own. 

Globally Tesla has 24,000 superchargers at 7,200 locations in the world. This will be a herculean task and that's why it is a big deal.