The push for electrification of the transportation sector is being supported by firms making important investments in charging infrastructure. These teams are taking revolutionary approaches, together with using solar energy, to offering the electrical energy obligatory for a community of charging stations.
Greenlane on March 27 introduced a serious venture that contains a 280-mile charging hall that ultimately may stretch from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Los Angeles, California. Greenlane, a three way partnership amongst Daimler Truck North America LLC, NextEra Power Sources, and BlackRock (by means of a fund managed by its Local weather Infrastructure enterprise), is rolling out the venture alongside Interstate 15. It can embrace charging places in Colton, Barstow, and Baker, California. The corporate on Wednesday mentioned it plans so as to add places that can prolong the charging companies into southern Nevada, and to San Pedro in California.
Renewable Properties, a San Francisco, California-based renewable power developer, additionally has launched an EV fleet charging service. The corporate, which develops and invests in small-scale utility and group photo voltaic tasks, is leveraging its group photo voltaic improvement, land acquisition, and electrical infrastructure experience to offer a turnkey charging resolution for firms transitioning their truck fleets from fossil fuels to electrical energy.
Renewable Properties’ first charging venture is sited in Vacaville, California, the place the corporate will supply 54 Degree 2 chargers, and 6 Degree 3 chargers, with about 3 MW of charging capability accessible to fleet automobiles, based on Aaron Halimi, the corporate’s founder and CEO.
The brand new charging tasks are notably essential throughout California. Companies in that state should adjust to the state’s Superior Clear Fleets (ACF) Regulation, which went into impact on Jan. 1 of this 12 months. The ACF rule prescribes a phased-in transition to EV fleets, requiring any fleet operator with income better than $50 million, or that controls greater than 50 vans, to start electrifying its fleets. Affected fleet house owners embrace retail manufacturers with warehouse and distribution facilities; public entities, together with municipalities, tribal governments, state governments, county governments, public colleges, schools, and universities; in addition to house owners of drayage truck fleets that transport cargo to and from California’s seaports and rail yards.
Innovation for Freight Transportation
Greenlane on Wednesday mentioned the corporate’s flagship web site in Colton, south of San Bernardino and about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, is positioned close to a number of main highways, together with interstates 10 and 15. Plans for the Colton web site embrace greater than 60 chargers, together with 400-kW direct present quick chargers (DCFCs) to hurry charging of medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission automobiles, often known as ZEVs. Further 200-kW DCFC charging choices onsite will allow long-duration and in a single day charging for heavy-duty tractors, medium-duty ZEVs, and college buses. Greenlane can even deploy a number of passenger automobile charging stalls to assist light-duty and passenger automobiles.
“Proper now, there’s an absence of public infrastructure throughout the trade to assist new medium- and heavy-duty electrical industrial trucking. These challenges, coupled with already-existing points going through the trucking trade like driver retention, parking and progress, make public help ever so helpful,” mentioned Patrick Macdonald-King, CEO of Greenlane. He instructed POWER, “We’re more and more seeing the emergence of packages geared toward supporting and advancing electrification throughout the industrial transportation trade. Whereas it’s only a begin, and we’ve seen far more consideration given to mild responsibility, latest developments are very encouraging and simply what this sector of the trade wants.”
Macdonald-King, who joined Greenlane final 12 months, was previously the president and COO of EV Join, one of many largest suppliers of EV charging networks within the U.S. with worldwide operations in Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. He mentioned, “After contemplating numerous elements, corresponding to truck telematics knowledge, frequent freight routes and buyer deployment technique, the Greenlane group chosen these three optimum places for our first industrial charging hall to speed up the transition to zero emissions. The launch of this hall not solely marks a essential step in addressing the pressing want for publicly accessible, nationwide electrical charging for industrial automobiles however can even function a mannequin for the EV charging hubs of the longer term.”
Greenlane has a objective to develop a nationwide community of economic charging infrastructure places that will serve heavy-duty vans together with passenger and light-duty automobiles. The places additionally may assist the refueling of hydrogen-fueled automobiles.
Macdonald-King instructed POWER, “Our preliminary hall venture is the beginning of a nationwide program. Finishing corridors, and ultimately rolling out a nationwide community of related charging stations, not solely addresses the pressing want for publicly accessible charging infrastructure for industrial automobiles, however creates a brand new mannequin for the way forward for EV charging, and ultimately hydrogen refueling. Whereas challenges exist, and no two websites can be an identical, our dedication to creating one of the best expertise for industrial drivers and fleets will assist get driver buy-in and in flip assist freight and logistics firms buy-in to electrification.
“We plan to go nicely past simply lighting up the LA-to-Southern Nevada hall … our ambitions are to increase our community throughout the nation. Stations are solely as highly effective because the community they belong to,” he mentioned.
Lengthy-Period and In a single day Charging
Greenlane mentioned later venture phases will assist each long-duration and in a single day charging lanes for tractor-trailer mixtures. The Colton web site additionally can be future-proofed, in an effort to accommodate the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) when commercially accessible. The MCS is being developed by CharIN, a gaggle that represents the heavy-duty automobile trade. The MCS is taken into account an essential piece of transitioning the freight transportation, aviation, and marine sectors to electrification.
“By utilizing a predictive modeling instrument to simulate truck visitors and power movement on the web site, we are able to decide what number of chargers are obligatory to satisfy the regional demand based mostly on automobile traits and departure and arrival occasions for automobiles hauling freight alongside this hall,” mentioned Macdonald-King. “Our findings indicated that inserting the three stations roughly 60 to 90 miles aside would maximize uptime for day-cab drivers by enabling shorter charging classes at every cease and in the end permitting clients to maneuver freight confidently with none limitations.”
Every Greenlane web site is being designed to improve and improve the present expertise for truck drivers who make the most of relaxation stops alongside the nation’s highways. The corporate mentioned the websites “may have huge pull-through lanes, permitting drivers to enter and exit the property shortly and simply. Whereas ready for automobiles to cost, drivers can entry fashionable services, with restrooms and different facilities, together with meals and beverage choices.”
The Colton web site, on the intersection of interstates 10 and 215, is anticipated to open in late 2024.
Northern California Charging Station
Renewable Properties mentioned the Vacaville charging station, positioned about 35 miles southwest of Sacramento, is being designed and constructed by international engineering and development firm Black & Veatch. The placement is meant to perform as a transportation and distribution hub for the San Francisco Bay Space. The corporate mentioned the primary station, anticipated to open subsequent 12 months, will act as a mannequin for deploying extra personal charging depots for medium- and heavy-duty electrical truck and bus fleets on the West Coast.
Renewable Properties, based in 2017, makes a speciality of growing and investing in small-scale utility, group photo voltaic, and power storage tasks all through the U.S. The corporate is energetic in 15 states and has greater than 1 GW of photo voltaic and power storage beneath improvement, with greater than 155 MW beneath development or in operation as of January 2024.
“We began engaged on EV charging nearly two years in the past,” mentioned Halimi, in an interview with POWER earlier this 12 months on the InterSolar convention in San Diego, California. “The unique thought was to co-locate photo voltaic and storage with freeway infrastructure.” Halimi mentioned key concerns included the expense of buying land in one of the best places, together with figuring out the utilization charge.
Halimi mentioned his group acknowledged the significance of constructing charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty trucking fleets. “Regulation and coverage are mandating they should electrify. We began siting for these stations, infill or industrial areas, ports, airports, industrial areas.” Halimi mentioned the corporate is “going exhausting now on a primary run with our first funding, on the intersection of I-80 and the 505.” Halimi mentioned the positioning expects to have “simply shy of three MW of capability,” with about 1 MW of fast-charging functionality.
Charging-As-A-Service Settlement
Charging at Renewable Properties’ depots can be provided by way of a charging-as-a-service settlement, which is analogous to an influence buy settlement, or PPA, that firms typically have with utilities to safe an everyday quantity of energy at a hard and fast value. The corporate mentioned it is going to web site, construct, personal, function, and preserve the gated depots, with clients paying just for the kilowatt-hours used to cost their EVs. The charging depots will characteristic reserved electrical capability, safe yards, automobile storage, and EV chargers that can be appropriate with most EV truck manufacturers, based on the corporate.
Halimi mentioned Renewable Properties’ service will assist fill the EV fleet charging hole in California and different states which might be shifting to set fleet electrification targets.
“The already-growing want for EV fleet charging is now extra pressing with California’s new necessities for fleet electrification,” mentioned Halimi. “With our easy, simple charging-as-a-service resolution, our work with Black & Veatch, plus our deep expertise in distributed electrical infrastructure improvement and land acquisition, Renewable Properties is uniquely positioned to alleviate fleet house owners of the burden of navigating the advanced implementation of EV charging infrastructure.”
Randal Kaufman, gross sales director for Black & Veatch, mentioned, “Black & Veatch continues accelerating the world’s transition to electrical automobiles, and we’re happy to be part of Renewable Properties’ new service. As a frontrunner in zero-emission automobile infrastructure, we deliver collectively key points of EV charging, distributed era and high-power supply infrastructure which might be important to holding EV tasks in movement.”
Halimi mentioned, “There’s a lot alternative within the EV infrastructure area. I’m nonetheless tremendous bullish about photo voltaic, however I discover myself getting the identical heat feeling about this enterprise.” He added, “The fleet facet is extra aligned with my photo voltaic background. Our normal buyer can be somebody who has electrified, or wants to affect, their fleet.” He additionally mentioned his firm’s expertise in buying land is essential to increasing a charging station community.
“Should you develop one in every of these tasks, in 5 years if you need to change out the charging gear, you are able to do that,” he mentioned. “This can be a B-to-B sale, however we perceive what it’s wish to be an EV client. We perceive what that appears like. These tasks might be the out of doors parking a number of the longer term.”
—Darrell Proctor is a senior affiliate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
