The holy grail of EV charging?
Electrify America announced today a $2 million investment in Envision Solar infrastructure. The effort will further increase rural Californians’ access to sustainable electric vehicle charging.
The move will place 30 solar-powered “EV ARC 2020” charging stations with two Level 2 EV chargers each and help Electrify America continue to expand access to public charging options across rural California.
Envision Solar – EV ARC
The EV ARC 2020 charging stations include two level 2 chargers capable of delivering 6 kW. The units have 32 kWh of onsite energy storage and a 4.28-kilowatt sun-tracking solar array. The system allows for true off-grid EV charging with 100% renewable electricity and can be placed where there is currently no access to an adequate supply of electricity to support EV charging.
“Envision Solar’s innovative technology allows us to offer renewable energy solutions for electric vehicle charging,” said Giovanni Palazzo, president and chief executive officer of Electrify America. “Along with supporting California’s broader air quality goals, this investment expands reliable, low-cost charging solutions to California residents living outside of major metropolitan areas – further demonstrating that electric vehicles are for everyone.”
These 30 stations will offer access to sustainable electric vehicle charging to drivers in rural areas, including the Central, Coachella, and Imperial Valleys of California.
Electrify America points out that these stations will have minimum impact on the sites because they don’t require any construction to install them. They simply drop them on the site and turn them on: “because of the custom size and flexible nature of the EV ARC™ 2020, the stations can be deployed quickly and without disruptive construction. Deployment takes only minutes, and the chargers can fit easily inside a standard parking spot, preserving available parking.”
“Electric vehicles accounted for about 8% of car sales in California in 2019 but EV penetration is still less than half a percent in rural areas,” said Desmond Wheatley, chief executive officer of Envision Solar. “Electrify America’s deployment of our rapidly deployed, solar-powered EV charging products will help the state get closer to its goal of 250,000 charging stations by 2025 while putting fully emissions free driving within reach of those who need it most. We look forward to continuing to support Electrify America’s efforts now and in the future.”
In a perfect world, all EV charging would be done from 100% renewable sources. On-site energy storage is needed for installations like this because of the peaks and valleys of usage as well as generation and the EV ARC 2020 looks on paper to be a great solution for a number of use cases.
We’d like to know what you think about these units. Do you see more of these being used in the future? Or is it better for the long run to just bring grid electricity to these remote places? Let us know in the comment section below.
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