Park and Power: Charging Solutions for Urban Electric Vehicles
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 08. 4.07
We’ve already noted the virus-like spread of electric vehicles (EVs) such as the G-Wiz in London. Along side the growth in the number of EVs on the road, we have also seen an increase in local authorities installing electric charging points on the streets. The fashion has even spread outside the nation’s congestion-charged capital, with EV enthusiasts in the city of Bristol recently celebrating the opening of the first charging point in the South West. As one might expect, the private sector is stepping in to develop and supply curbside charging solutions for electric cars, bikes and buggies. Park and Power is one such company.
The company supplies the units then, when installed, EV owners simply purchase a license to use them, then just park up, plug in, and charge. Presumably this model would require a significant number of units in different locations to make it worth while buying a license, and the website doesn’t say much about how many vehicles can use a unit at one time. Nevertheless, we’re encouraged to see more suppliers providing solutions for increased EV use, and we’re sure details can be ironed out as streetside charging gets more popular. Encouragingly, Park and Power also seem to have gone to great lengths to ensure compatibility with a wide range of vehicles:
“Most types of plugs can use the recharge points. Any unusual or specific needs can be met. This is crucial, as we don't want to prejudice some makes of electric cars, motorbikes or pushbikes from using the system. We want to try and encourage more organisations to start producing electric vehicles.”
Anyone wanting to investigate the potential of charging units for a particular site is encouraged to contact the company for a free consultation. We look forward to a day when units like these are as ubiquitous as parking meters on the streets of our cities. ::Park and Power:: via EVUK::
Would it be possible to combine parking meters with plugin capabilities?
Good to see these spreading. However some sort of solution is going to have to be found for home recharging. In cities like London, off-street parking is rare and many people don't live at street level. So how to recharge your car overnight? Having extension cords trailing out over the pavement won't be very satisfactory.
It'll be a tricky problem to lick
Does anyone ever think about where the energy is coming from to recharge your car?
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Author's comment:
People certainly do think about where the electricity comes from. Many of the UK companies promoting electric cars are encouraging owners to switch to green tariffs. As far as I understand it, however, electric vehicles should lead to a significant reduction in carbon emissions, even when fuelled from the dirtiest power sources such as coal.
I am not an engineer, so please don't take my word as gospel, but I understand this is partly due to the inherent efficiency of electric motors vs. internal combustion engines, and partially due to the fact that electric cars can make use of excess capacity in the present grid. Of course, as the grid gradually incorporates more renewables, this should improve the co2 numbers even further.
For more thoughts on this, and some serious numbers, check out this debate over at our forums.
You might also want to take a look at our post on the current US grid capacity to fuel electric cars.
Of course, makers of EVs are likely to be biased, but you might also be interested in the Well to Wheels efficiency info over at Tesla, or the similar info provided by GoinGreen.
Hope that helps!
Yes. And?