A
charging station, also called
electric recharging point,
charging point and
juice point is a point that supplies
electricityElectricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge...
for the recharging of electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrids) and filling of compressed air vehicles.
Charging fees may be determined by local governments with some expected to offer the service for free.
Places
Charging stations can be found and will be needed where there is on-street parking, at
taxi standA taxicab stand is a queue area on a street or on private property where taxicabs line up to wait for passengers.- How stands work :...
s, in
parking lotA Parking lot , also known as "car lot", is a cleared area that is more or less level and is intended for parking vehicles...
s (at places of employment, hotels, airports, shopping centers etc), as well as in driveways and
garagesright|thumb|200px|A garage in [[Belo Horizonte]], [[Brazil]].A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles...
at home. Existing
filling stationA gas station, fueling station, filling station, service station, petrol station, garage, gasbar, petrol pump or petrol bunk is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are petrol A gas station, fueling station, filling station, service station,...
s may also become or may incorporate charging stations.
Infrastructure
Charging stations for
electric vehicleAn electric vehicle , also referred to as an electric drive vehicle, is a vehicle which uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. Depending on the type of vehicle, motion may be provided by wheels or propellers driven by rotary motors, or in the case of tracked vehicles, by linear motors...
s may not need much new infrastructure in developed countries as the stations can leverage the existing electrical grid and refueling infrastructure. For example, polls have shown that many more than half of homeowners in the USA have access to a plug to charge their cars. With an ubiquitous electrical grid already in place, creating a charging infrastructure for
EVeV may mean:* Electronvolt, a unit of energye. V. may mean:* Eingetragener Verein, a registered club in Germany#eV may mean:* Most Valuable player ShaQEV may mean:* Estonia's official name is Eesti Vabariik...
s and for PHEVs is a much smaller challenge than delivering a new alternative fuel over a new network. It requires broadly accepted standards and companies that can use today's hardware and software technologies to begin.
Most driving happens locally and without the need for quick charging. In the USA, for example, 78% of commutes are less than round-trip. Longer drives between cities and towns require a network of stations or another method to extend the range of electric vehicles beyond the normal daily commute. In the first half of the twentieth century, internal combustion vehicles faced a similar infrastructure problem. Electrical stations will become crucial points for pure electric vehicles that otherwise would not be able to cross long distances without an intermediate recharge. One challenge in such infrastructure is the level of demand: an isolated station along a busy highway may see hundreds of customers per hour if every passing electric vehicle has to stop there to complete the trip.
A charging station is different from an exchange station, which is a place to
swapA swap generally refers to the bartering of one thing for another, but it may also refer to:Finance* Swap , a derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of cash flows against anotherTechnology...
a discharged battery or battery pack for a charged one. If exchange stations are robotized, the driver usually does not have to get out of the car while the battery is automatically taken out and replaced. Such a swap can be completed in less than two minutes.
Technical issues
Assuming a 50 kilowatt-hour battery pack and ideal charging efficiency, a ten-minute, quick charge from 10% to 80% capacity would require a power draw of 210 kilowatts from the electric grid. At 240 volts, this means a current draw of 875
AmpereThe ampere is the SI unit of electric current. The ampere, in practice often shortened to amp, is an SI base unit, and is named after André-Marie Ampère, one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism....
s from the outlet. Such high currents require very heavy conductors and carefully designed connectors. Industry practice reduces the current draw by using higher supply voltages; electrical transmission grids, for example, use several thousand volt transmission lines and then
transformA transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core, and thus a varying magnetic field...
down to the required voltage. Using three-phase power also reduces the conductor size required and smooths out the load on the generating infrastructure. Using industrial 480 volt, three-phase
ACIn alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. An electric charge would for instance move forward, then backward, then forward, then backward, over and over again...
power reduces the required charging current to 440A and within IEC 62196 standards. Higher currents put additional demands on the electrical insulation that the users handle and require additional safety precautions when using the charging system.
Inductive chargingInductive charging charges electrical batteries using electromagnetic induction. A charging station sends energy through inductive coupling to an electrical device, which stores the energy in the batteries...
has also been used on the GM
EV-1, Chevy S-10 EV and
Toyota RAV4 EVThe RAV4 EV is an all-electric version of the popular RAV4 SUV produced by Toyota. It was sold from 1997 to 2003.The first fleet version of the RAV4 EV became available on a limited basis in 1997. In 2001 it was possible for businesses, cities or utilities to lease one or two of these cars...
. With current technology, inductive efficiency losses of 8-13% are to be expected.
In practice, the energy efficiency of ten-minute charging is likely to be somewhat lowered in any case due to the
ohmic lossesJoule heating, also known as ohmic heating and resistive heating, is the process by which the passage of an electric current through a conductor releases heat. It was first studied by James Prescott Joule in 1841. Joule immersed a length of wire in a fixed mass of water and measured the temperature...
caused by the required high current inside the vehicle. The lost energy is converted directly to heat, which maybe detrimental to the battery pack or surrounding electronics; additional power may be required for cooling equipment that removes the excess heat. Increasing the capacity of the battery pack increases the required power, current and heat loss linearly, which is why ten-minute charging may require new innovations as vehicles with increased range are developed.
The high peak power requirement of ten-minute charging can also stress the local power grid and might increase the risk of power brown- or black-outs during peak demand if enough vehicles choose to charge at these times. Time of use metering can help alleviate this stress by creating economic incentives for vehicles to be recharged at off-peak times. Another solution is to use an energy storage system to bridge the gap between the charging station demand and the power grid. The energy storage system suffers some efficiency drop and thus trades lower overall system efficiency in favor of higher peak demand capacity. Another possibility is on-site, on-demand power generation.
One type of battery "replacement" offers a simpler solution. The latest generation of
vanadium redox batteryThe vanadium redox battery is a type of rechargeable flow battery that employs vanadium redox couples in both half-cells, thereby eliminating the problem of cross contamination by diffusion of ions across the membrane. The present form was patented by the University of New South Wales in...
has an energy density similar to lead-acid batteries; however, the charge is stored solely in a vanadium-based liquid electrolyte which can be pumped out and replaced with charged fluid. The vanadium battery system is also a potential candidate for intermediate energy storage in ten-minute charging stations because of its high power density and extremely good endurance in daily use. System cost however, is still prohibitive. As vanadium battery systems are estimated to cost between $350–$600 per kWh, a battery that can service one hundred customers in a 24 hour period at 50 kWh per charge could cost $1.8-$3 million.
Better Place proposes expanding the use of battery exchange technology from the warehouse, where it us used by electric forklifts, and into electric car range extension.
Vehicle and Charging Station Joint Ventures
Better Place was started by
Shai AgassiShai Agassi is Founder and CEO of Better Place . Previously, Agassi was President of the Products and Technology Group at SAP AG. He resigned from this position on March 28 effective April 1, 2007, to pursue interests in alternative energy and climate change...
on October 29, 2007, focusing on building massive scale Electric Recharge Grids as infrastructure to support the deployment of electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrids). The company has said it is in talks with more than 25 countries around the world. Better Place has also created a battery-switching station (also called Quickdrop Stations) which will allow drivers to travel further distances without wasting time charging. Cars can drive up to a switching station and swap depleted batteries for fully recharged ones. This process can be done in less than five minutes.
In France,
Électricité de FranceÉlectricité de France is the world’s largest utility company with $95.5 billion in revenues last year, operating a diverse portfolio of 120,000+ megawatts of generation capacity in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle-East and Africa...
(EDF) and Toyota are installing recharging points for PHEVs on roads, streets and
parking lotA Parking lot , also known as "car lot", is a cleared area that is more or less level and is intended for parking vehicles...
s.. EDF is also partnering with Elektromotive, Ltd. to install 250 new charging points over six months from October 2007 in London and elsewhere in the UK. Recharging points also can be installed for specific uses, as in
taxi standA taxicab stand is a queue area on a street or on private property where taxicabs line up to wait for passengers.- How stands work :...
s.
The Renault-Nissan alliance and the largest French electric utility,
Electricite de FranceÉlectricité de France is the world’s largest utility company with $95.5 billion in revenues last year, operating a diverse portfolio of 120,000+ megawatts of generation capacity in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle-East and Africa...
(EDF) have signed an agreement to promote emission-free mobility in France. The move aims at offering all-electric volume vehicles from 2011 — including a countrywide network of battery charging stations. The French-Japanese car manufacturer has already signed similar agreements in a number of places outside of France including
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
and the U.S. state of
TennesseeTennessee is a state located in the Southeastern United States. According to the 2008 census, it has a population of 6,214,888, an increase of nearly 9.5% since 2000. Tennessee is the 14th fastest growing state in the US and is ranked 17th by population. It is ranked 36th by total land area. In...
.. The Renault-Nissan Alliance and UK company Elektromotive, a provider of electric vehicle recharging stations, are collaborating in the Partnership for Zero-Emission-Mobility, with the aim of accelerating the installation of charging networks for
plug-in vehiclePlug-in vehicle refers to:*Plug-in all-electric vehicle*Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle...
s in cities. The Alliance and Elektromotive have signed a
Memorandum of UnderstandingA memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action...
.
In the USA,
Portland General ElectricPortland General Electric is an electrical utility, formerly owned by the Houston-based Enron Corporation , that distributes electricity to customers in parts of Portland, Oregon, as well as parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - half of the inhabitants of...
has installed nearly 20
electric vehicleAn electric vehicle , also referred to as an electric drive vehicle, is a vehicle which uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. Depending on the type of vehicle, motion may be provided by wheels or propellers driven by rotary motors, or in the case of tracked vehicles, by linear motors...
charging stations in
PortlandPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
and
Salem, OregonSalem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
as part of a demonstration project to develop the transportation infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles and plug-in cars .
Coulomb TechnologiesCoulomb Technologies is a electric vehicle infrastructure company. It is based in Campbell, CA.It has announced its expansion into Europe, the Middle East and Africa with the opening of Coulomb’s European headquarters represented by 365 Energy Group, a venture of Estag Capital AG, in Berlin,...
´ ChargePoint Network includes public charging stations, a consumer subscription plan and utility grid management technology to help
electric utilityAn electric utility is a company that engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major provider of energy in most countries. It is indispensable to factories, commercial establishments,...
companies to smooth electrical demands on the grid .
Gilbarco Veeder-RootGilbarco Veeder-Root, a subsidiary of the Danaher Corporation, is a supplier of fuel dispensers, point of sale systems, payment systems, forecourt merchandising and support services worldwide...
are partnering with Coulomb to advance public charging facilities. Gilbarco exhibited Coulomb Technologies' Smartlet Charging Station at the
National Association of Convenience StoresNACS is an international trade association representing the convenience and petroleum retailing industry.-Background:NACS was founded August 14, 1961, as the National Association of Convenience Stores. It is an international trade association representing more than 2,200 retail and 1,800 supplier...
(NACS) show in October 2008 . At the end of 2008, Coulomb Technologies planned to roll out five curbside charging stations in
downtownDowntown is a term primarily used in North America to refer to a city's core or central business district, usually in a geographical, commercial, and community sense....
San Jose that drivers can access through a
prepaidPrepaid refers to services paid for in advance. Examples include tolls, pay as you go cell phones, and stored-value cards such as gift cards and preloaded credit cards. Prepaid accounts are assets, and they are increased by debiting the account....
plan. The company was working with entities in Las Vegas Nevada, New York and Florida to do something similar there .
Carmaker Daimler AG and utility RWE AG will begin a joint electric car and charging station test project in the German capital,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
, called "E-Mobility Berlin." .
Carmaker VW and utility
E.ONE.ON AG , an energy corporation based in Düsseldorf, Germany, is one of the 30 members of the DAX stock index of major German companies and a member of the Global Titans 50 index. Its chief executive officer is Dr. Wulf H. Bernotat...
will begin a joint electric car and charging station test project in the German capital,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and in
WolfsburgWolfsburg is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig , and is mainly notable as the headquarters of Volkswagen AG...
.
A fleet of electric cars and charge points will be rolled out across
CoventryCoventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham with a population of 300,848...
(
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) as part of a multi-million pound pilot project .
Drivers can now plug in at two park-and-ride lots in King County, which includes Seattle. The county plans to add sockets at three garages under construction. There are about 30 reliable sites in the Seattle area to plug in. Most are free, others charge the same as parking a gas-powered car -- $7 an hour .
In recent months, the cities of
EdmondsEdmonds may refer to:* Edmonds, Washington, a US city* Edmonds , people with the surname Edmonds-See also:* Burnaby-Edmonds, an electoral district in British Columbia, Canada.* Edmonds Cookbook* Edmonds Station* Edmunds* Edmond...
and
Lacey-People:surname*Andrew Lacey , Australian politician*Bill Lacey , Irish footballer*Bob Lacey , American baseball player*Bruce Lacey, British inventor*Catherine Lacey , English actress...
invited drivers to plug in their electric vehicles at free public stations .
Park & ChargePark & Charge is a European infrastructure for charging solar cars and electric vehicle. Since 1992 it is a service of the Electromobile Club of Switzerland....
is a European Charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Park & Charge is service of the electric car club in Switzerland (ECS) since 1992. Today there is a Park & Charge at nearly 300 locations in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Holland and Italy, offering a safe and easy way for drivers of electric vehicles to charge their car batteries. The locations of the charging stations in Europe will be published in LEMnet (internet database).
In
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. It is the third-most populous municipality in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-most populous city by urban area in the European Union after Paris and London.The city is located on the river...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, a trial is to take place to convert 30 former
telephone boxesA telephone booth, telephone kiosk, or telephone box is a small structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience. Such a booth usually has a door to provide privacy and a window to let others know if the booth is in use...
into charging points for
electric carAn electric car is an alternative fuel automobile that uses electric motors and motor controllers for propulsion, in place of more common propulsion methods such as the internal combustion engine . Electric cars are a specifically a variety of electric vehicle intended for use as a road-going...
s. They are expected to be suitable because they tend to be at the roadside and already have electricity supplies. They would form part of a planned network of 546 charging points in Madrid,
BarcelonaBarcelona is the capital, most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008. It is the 11th-most populous municipality in the European Union and sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris,...
and
SevilleSeville is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level. The inhabitants of the city are known as Sevillanos or...
, subsidised by the Spanish Government.
Renewable electricity and RE charging stations
Solar powerSolar energy, radiant light and heat from the Sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
is suitable for
electric vehicleAn electric vehicle , also referred to as an electric drive vehicle, is a vehicle which uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. Depending on the type of vehicle, motion may be provided by wheels or propellers driven by rotary motors, or in the case of tracked vehicles, by linear motors...
s.
SolarCitySolarCity is a provider of solar energy system design, financing, installation and related services based in Foster City, California. SolarCity was founded in July 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, including a $10M investment by entrepreneur Elon Musk , and is the #1 provider of residential...
is marketing its solar energy systems along with electric car charging installations. The company has announced a partnership with
RabobankRabobank is a financial services provider with offices worldwide. Their main location is in the Netherlands. They are a global leader in Food and Agri financing and in sustainability-oriented banking...
to make electric car charging available for free to owners of
Tesla MotorsTesla Motors Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based company that engineers and manufactures electric cars . It is currently the only automaker building and selling highway-capable EVs in serial production in North America or Europe...
' vehicles traveling on Highway 101 between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other cars that can make use of same charging technology are welcome.
E-Move Charging Station
The E-Move Charging Station is equipped with eight monocrystalline
photovoltaic moduleA photovoltaic module or photovoltaic panel is a packaged interconnected assembly of photovoltaic cells, also known as solar cells. The photovoltaic module, known more commonly as the solar panel, is then used as a component in a larger photovoltaic system to offer electricity for commercial and...
s, which can supply 1.76KWp of solar power. With further refinements, the designers are hoping to generate about 2000KWh of electricity from the panels over the year.
See also
- Automated Charging Machine
An Automated Charging Machine is an electronic machine that provides the public with the ability to recharge their mobile devices, often for a small fee. Similar to vending machines, ACMs take cash, then charge the connected devices, which may be cell phones, PDAs, etc. Usually, these machines...
- Battery charger
A battery charger is a device used to put energy into a secondary cell or battery by forcing an electric current through it.The charge current depends upon the technology and capacity of the battery being charged...
- Battery leasing
- Direct coupling
In electronics direct coupling is a way of interconnecting two circuits such that, in addition to transferring the AC signal , the first stage also provides DC bias to the next...
- Electric vehicle battery
An electric vehicle battery is a rechargeable battery used in electric vehicles, making them battery electric vehicles .Batteries are usually the most expensive component of BEVs, although batteries from old or wrecked electric cars can be bought for battery-to-grid mini-power plants...
- Filling station
A gas station, fueling station, filling station, service station, petrol station, garage, gasbar, petrol pump or petrol bunk is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are petrol A gas station, fueling station, filling station, service station,...
- Inductive charging
Inductive charging charges electrical batteries using electromagnetic induction. A charging station sends energy through inductive coupling to an electrical device, which stores the energy in the batteries...
- Induction coil
An induction coil or "spark coil" is a type of disruptive discharge coil. It is a type of electrical transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage DC supply...
- IEEE
- Removable battery
- Transport electrification
- V2G, V2Green and V2H.
- Wireless charging
- Park & Charge
Park & Charge is a European infrastructure for charging solar cars and electric vehicle. Since 1992 it is a service of the Electromobile Club of Switzerland....
- Valentin Runggaldier
- Wireless
Wireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires". The distances involved may be short or long . When the context is clear, the term is often shortened to "wireless"...
External links