Tesla plans its first off-grid community
Tesla is planning to take a 1,400-acre community in Mexico completely off-grid.
The first-of-its-kind energy solution at the Twin Dolphin community in Los Cabos, will see Tesla supply batteries and power management for a private residential community and club, Montage Los Cabos resort and residences, and Twin Dolphin Club. A similar setup will be implemented next fall in Sonoma County, California.
The initiative at Twin Dolphin will leverage Tesla’s fully integrated solar panels and battery energy storage and software systems to provide reliable renewable energy for the entire community, which developer Ohana claims has received government approvals and is currently underway.
The Tesla project will generate over 20 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year. The project consists of a central ground-mount site spanning over 22 acres, located adjacent to Twin Dolphin’s already existing reverse osmosis and desalination plant that provides potable water to the community. Tesla Powerhub, a data platform to monitor energy use, is incorporated into the project to use real-time and historical data tracking to optimize its energy usage, improve performance, and help inform future decisions.
The new systems will provide all the energy for Twin Dolphin, and also generate clean back-up power for the wider community. The system will run completely off-grid if needed, in the event of power outages due to storms or natural disasters. The back-up power supply can also feed into the local power grid as the Baja region of Mexico, which has experienced energy shortages with increased development.
“We are excited to see our vision of being the first off-the-grid community in Cabo coming to life. We are grateful for the partnership and engagement of Tesla and their technologies, which have made this possible. Our larger vision is that other premier master plan community developers will follow our lead and implement similar projects so that collectively we can help preserve our environment,” says Chris Smith, CEO of Ohana Real Estate Investors.
This new solar initiative complements sustainability initiatives at Twin Dolphin, including the preservation of over 40,000 native plants during the development of the property maintained by its water plant, conserving energy through building design that maximizes natural cooling, utilizing locally sourced building materials, implementing tankless water heaters in all buildings and using LED lights throughout the property.
