The Beehive Hotel Motel in Coolac, NSW is currently closed for renovations, but when it re-opens, it’ll do so with a major upgrade. Tesla has plans to install a 12-bay Supercharger at the site with V4 chargers and while Tesla has done that at many sites across Australia, this one is a little special.
This location will include a solar array over the top of the car parking spaces. The solar array will include 176 panels from manufacture Canadian Solar. The CSI CS6W-555MS panels offer 555 Watts each for a total solar array of 97.68 kWp, connected to Sungrow Solar SG50CX and SG30CX inverters.
The solar array doesn’t just provide energy to charge the cars, but also provides important shelter while charging, something not many of the more than 100 Tesla Supercharger sites around Australia.
The site will also feature a Tesla Megapack, something I’m not sure we’ve seen before in Australia. The big battery will store the energy from the sun, and provide it to the chargers and likely other parts of the site, like the pub and future accommodation.
As it stands, the Coolac Pub needs some love, it’s pretty tired, but once transformed, the site will become one of the most future-forward sites. It is hoped that this will increase traffic to the location and the community of Coolac.
While it would have been amazing to see a Tesla-owned solar array to complete the trifecta of solar, battery and EV chargers, two out of three isn’t bad.
Having read through the development documents required, it really is stunning what is required to get a project like this to come to reality. There’s aboriginal and heritage report, architectural plans, electrical plans, soil tests, water and storm water management plans, landscaping plans, environment effects investigations, traffic reports, political donations and gifts disclosures and that’s not even the full list.
Credit to Tesla Motors Club forum members Mark Aubrey and RichardV for discovering the planning permits for this Coolac Supercharger site and another 20x bay Supercharger in Goulburn.
More information can be found at Coolac – https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/…/coolac-hotel…
I suspect that this will be start of hundreds of rural & remote pubs installing EV charging. Already many offer free camping for the traveler’s while now there are many nomads/tourists are using BEV’s and plug in’s on the roads.