New Megacharger spotted in Sacramento as Tesla's solar-powered Semi charging network vision remains elusive

Tesla recently delivered its first Semi trucks to a commercial customer like Pepsi to a great fanfare, yet failed to disclose any important specs like the Semi's price, exact battery capacity, or its detailed charging time on the dedicated Megacharger stalls. It is also way off its vision for a self-sustainable Semi truck charging, it seems, as the 1MW+ Megacharger stations are supposed to have huge solar panel array and storage battery installations in the long term that will make them independent from the grid.

So far, the known Megacharger stalls for the Semi have been two, the first one which Tesla made on its Nevada factory premises as a proof of concept, and the one at Pepsi's Modesto facilities that was built to serve the initial batch of 15 Semis that Tesla is delivering there. Now, another one has popped up and, logically, it is located in Pepsi's other plant in Sacramento, as the Semis will probably be doing that Modesto-Sacramento route rather frequently.

There is no big solar array visible on the leaked pictures of the Sacramento Megacharger station either, so the solar plus battery charging network independence vision apparently won't be fulfilled for the Semi's huge electricity appetite as expected, at least initially. A recent analysis showed that each Tesla Semi truck highway stop that is sufficiently large would consume the electricity of a small town in the US, sparking worries about the grid's ability to provide for the long-haul transport electrification era.

Tesla is trying to allay those worries with ideas like the grid-independent Megacharger stations, but that vision may be a long way off still, if the first such stations are any indication. Granted, they are on Pepsi factory premises, and Pepsi received a huge grant by the state of California to greenify them, including for solar panel and storage battery installations, so Tesla might be piggybacking off of those projects for the Semi charging here. After all, half of Pepsi's Tesla Semi truck order is paid with that sustainable energy grant as well.

It remains to be seen if Tesla will be going for fully independent, off-the-grid Semi Megacharger stations as well, if and when it starts building those along major highways and at long-haul truck stops across the US. One of the first examples of that vision will appear as a Supercharger V4 station with solar arrays and Megapack battery backup in Yuma County, Arizona. The permit is for 40 stalls and two solar installations of 4500 square foot each, in addition to a Megapack battery storage station along Interstate 8 on the way to Tucson.

Those solar canopies in the permit are still only able to produce a fraction of the electricity needed for the station if regular Tesla cars are lined up there, though, let alone a Semi, and can only be called a nice start on the way to Tesla's charging independence vision.

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