Lemnos planned as testbed for Tesla's innovative energy "experiment"

The fact that it is the eighth largest island of Greece with an area of ​​476 square kilometers and the fourth coastline means that it can accommodate a standalone PV and battery power system as the people of the American company presented yesterday to the Ministry of Energy and Environment (YPEN), on the other hand, because of its size, the cost per megawatt is reduced.

These projects need a lot of space to grow, and it is no coincidence that at the YPEN meeting with the Tesla Europe executives, the latter presented a case study on Rhodes.

However, according to the information, YPEN considers that the island of the Knights, precisely because each year it is flooded by thousands of tourists, is not the appropriate case to apply such a model. And because of the thousands of arrivals and hence the high consumption of electricity by Rhodes, it would be a risk for this island to abandon the traditional way of meeting its current needs.

In any case, any solution chosen for the next autonomous energy island will emerge after a tender that is expected to be launched in spring by the Independent Energy Authoity, and in which YPEN Minister G. Stathakis has called the US company to participate.

The Tesla system is similar to the one used on American Samoa to replace diesel generators that consume 1,400 liters of oil per day with a stand-alone power system comprising photovoltaiccells and large batteries. 1.4 MW of photovoltaic panels have been installed on this island, together with a 6 MWh power storage system with a total of 60 Tesla Powerpacks.

It is one of the world's most advanced power micro networks, which can ensure full electricity supply even when there is no sunshine for 3 consecutive days while the batteries can be fully charged within 7 hours.

According to Tesla executives, the cost of a megawatt-hour from these systems can start from 170 and reach even lower to 135 euros per megawatt, costs 15 to 30% lower than the cost of generating electricity from diesel generators (200 euros / megawatt hours).