Tesla just announced it’s going to be powering Kauai with solar panels and its giant battery packs.
The solar farm is made up of 54,978 solar panels with 13 megawatts of solar generation capacity. Tesla has also installed 272 of its large commercial battery to store the solar energy to use at night.
The project plans to reduce fossil fuel use by approximately 1.6 million gallons per year, Tesla estimates. Tesla will begin turning on the massive solar system in phases.
Tesla jumped into solar energy following its purchase of SolarCity last November. Tesla has also just powered the nearly the entire Island of Ta’u in American Samoa with solar power and its Powerpacks.
Tesla partnered with the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) to launch this project. KIUC signed a contract with Tesla to purchase 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity for $.139 over a 20-year time frame. Before Tesla acquired SolarCity, the two companies agreed in February 2016 to use Tesla's 52 MWh Powerpack to bring 20 years of power to Kaua’i, so this project has been in the works for quite a while.