Tesla’s Tilburg factory gets a new massive solar array

Combining more solar power with the energy consumption created by electric vehicles has long been part of Tesla’s plan, but the rollout has been disappointing to some.

But it seems to be picking up lately, and now even Tesla’s Tilburg factory gets a new massive solar array.

Most people know about Tesla’s Fremont factory, where it manufactures all its vehicles, and its Gigafactories, Gigafactory 1 in Nevada, where they manufacture battery cells, packs, and Model 3 drive units, and Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, where they manufacture solar panels and solar roof tiles.

But the company also has a final assembly plant in Tilburg, Netherlands.

The automaker has had a facility in the city for a long time, but it opened a new 78,000 square-meter (840,000 sq-ft) plant in the city back in 2015.

The factory performs the final assembly process and testing for Model S and Model X vehicles going to certain European markets, including the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. The plant has an indoor test-track for quality testing before the cars go out to new owners.

Here are a few images of the factory:

As reported by Ecosyf executive Kees van der Leun, the factory is now home to one of the largest rooftop solar array in the Netherlands:

One of NL's latest & largest rooftop solar PV systems, at @Tesla in Tilburg; shiny!
Roof is 43,000 m2, densely packed, must be something like 3 MW.
Photo: Google Maps, h/t @Polder_PV pic.twitter.com/iupCQDByzs

— Kees van der Leun  (@Sustainable2050) January 14, 2018

As he points out, the panels are extremely densely packed on the roof and the system is estimated to have a capacity of about 3 MW.

It’s a large system, but it could be dwarfed by Tesla’s planned solar rooftop array at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.

Last year, Tesla announced that it plans a 70 MW solar array at the Gigafactory, but it has yet to start work on the system according to the latest images of the plant.

But the automaker has been expanding its solar portfolio nonetheless, For example, Tesla’s new type of larger Supercharger stations are equipped with large solar carports.