The First Electric Car Filling Station

[SteveA30]

I thought petrol stations would just gradually convert to Electric vehicle charging but, this seems to be the future.
https://gridserve.com/braintree-overview/

[DB617]

Looks great. There was always going to be a need to entertain people while their cars charged.

I wonder what the power supply to that site looks like. Got to be a pretty high voltage line.

[roadtester]

Looks great. There was always going to be a need to entertain people while their cars charged.

I wonder what the power supply to that site looks like. Got to be a pretty high voltage line.

I visited the site while it was under construction - I've never seen so much ducting and so much cabling in my life. A small but significant proportion of the power is generated on site via solar panels on the canopy roofs. IIRC they also have a large solar farm not too far away which doesn't supply the site directly but does generate enough to feed into the grid to allow them to claim to be carbon neutral.

[Bryn666]

Looks neat but the real victory is managing to reduce recharge waiting times to a minimal level to hammer the final nail into petrol's coffin. This needs to happen sooner than later.

[Bfivethousand]

A small but significant proportion of the power is generated on site via solar panels on the canopy roofs. IIRC they also have a large solar farm not too far away which doesn't supply the site directly but does generate enough to feed into the grid to allow them to claim to be carbon neutral.

It's also said that there are exercise bikes within the waiting compound which also generate eletricity.

The designer is insistent it should not be considered to be a service area. I can't think why

[roadtester]

A small but significant proportion of the power is generated on site via solar panels on the canopy roofs. IIRC they also have a large solar farm not too far away which doesn't supply the site directly but does generate enough to feed into the grid to allow them to claim to be carbon neutral.

It's also said that there are exercise bikes within the waiting compound which also generate eletricity.

The designer is insistent it should not be considered to be a service area. I can't think why

I asked him about that. He really is named after the MSA, and (I’m not making this up) he also has a brother called Heston.

[Bfivethousand]

Excellent!

A true trailblazer though, more power to him!

[yen_powell]

I fill my motorbike at the supermarket across the road to this every day on the way to work. I have to be very careful leaving as they spread mud from the site all around the roundabout next to the site, so it's a slow trip round it till I reach dry ground again. They did have road sweeping vehicles, but they couldn't keep up by the look of it. Essex clay is very special from a grip point of view!

Good luck to them, I regularly have power cuts and have done for the last 20 years. The sound of house alarms going off and me having to reset my heating controls is a regular occurrence. I have always assumed it is because Braintree has grown more quickly than the electrical supply can cope with.

[c2R]

Looks neat but the real victory is managing to reduce recharge waiting times to a minimal level to hammer the final nail into petrol's coffin. This needs to happen sooner than later.

I think key to that, and the layout and format of electric charging service areas, will be what happens in terms of two things:
* What solution is made for HGVs
* Whether the current battery+charging technology wins out for cars over other solutions, such as hydrogen fuel cells, or hot swappable batteries

[roadtester]

Looks neat but the real victory is managing to reduce recharge waiting times to a minimal level to hammer the final nail into petrol's coffin. This needs to happen sooner than later.

I think key to that, and the layout and format of electric charging service areas, will be what happens in terms of two things:
* What solution is made for HGVs
* Whether the current battery+charging technology wins out for cars over other solutions, such as hydrogen fuel cells, or hot swappable batteries

The Gridserve site already can take trucks, I believe.

Hydrogen has already lost for the time being now we have affordable full range BEVs.

Battery swapping has a niche - e.g. electric scooters. The main limiting factor is once the batteries get any larger than that they are too heavy to be lifted/moved manually or with simple equipment so you need heavy investment in handling machinery.

Someone was tweeting some interesting pics today of Circle K filling stations in Norway which are hybrid sites, i.e. half petrol station, half Gridserve style electric refuelling facility.

I wonder if anyone will try that in the U.K. - maybe BP which already is putting some chargers into its filling stations.

[newt21964]

I regularly have power cuts and have done for the last 20 years.

The site has a 6MGW battery, Its main income will be from load balancing and frequency support to the grid. So your power supply may improve!!

[c2R]

The Gridserve site already can take trucks, I believe.

Hydrogen has already lost for the time being now we have affordable full range BEVs.

Battery swapping has a niche - e.g. electric scooters. The main limiting factor is once the batteries get any larger than that they are too heavy to be lifted/moved manually or with simple equipment so you need heavy investment in handling machinery.

Someone was tweeting some interesting pics today of Circle K filling stations in Norway which are hybrid sites, i.e. half petrol station, half Gridserve style electric refuelling facility.

I wonder if anyone will try that in the U.K. - maybe BP which already is putting some chargers into its filling stations.

I would have thought that the big MSAs with plenty of space will go down that route - particularly because lots of people travelling on business have meetings at MSAs, or meet up at them and leave a car in the car park and make an onward journey from the MSA.

The HGV thing I don't think is as simple - it's probably more a discussion for the EV thread, but of course it has a direct implication on roads and the types of services that end up being available... While there do appear to be some Electric HGVs, they aren't the sort of things that are able to run 24/7 with multiple drivers carrying 44 tones of freight. They have relatively short runtimes when towing the sorts of loads which are normal...

So what's the solution? Is it going to be swappable tractor units, so you're taking your load between depots and swap out the tractor to carry on the journey. Or perhaps for non perishables, does the computer just tell the driver to leave that truck and load and pick up another that's fully charged and waiting? Or is induction or cantenery wires on motorways, with the last short distance to the distribution centre/shop/factory done by battery? Or is this where hydrogen is going to make an appearance? Given the critical nature of the haulage industry in the planning of service areas and filling stations - I think whatever solution is adopted to replace diesel will have a direct impact upon the set up of these types of operation.

[roadtester]

Yes - hydrogen may have a place for bigger trucks. There are already quite a few electric trucks on offer but they tend to be the 3.5t to 7.5t jobs that work fairly locally. Long range artics or whatever are more challenging.

[Big Nick]

Did I read that right? Booths supermarket all the way down in Essex?
Yes I did! https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/property-an ... 52.article

For those who aren't familiar with Booths, it's a northern Waitrose with less than 30 stores. Prices to match too.

[Ruperts Trooper]

Yes - hydrogen may have a place for bigger trucks. There are already quite a few electric trucks on offer but they tend to be the 3.5t to 7.5t jobs that work fairly locally. Long range artics or whatever are more challenging.

There is a precedent for long range HGVs, at least in concept - in the stage coach era, the horses would be changed at each coaching inn along the route - a parallel for HGVs would require more tractor units so that a freshly charged one took the trailer onwards while the previous one was recharged.

Of course, hauling 44 tonnes will require much bigger capacity batteries than cars, with potentially longer recharging times.

[roadtester]

Did I read that right? Booths supermarket all the way down in Essex?
Yes I did! https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/property-an ... 52.article

For those who aren't familiar with Booths, it's a northern Waitrose with less than 30 stores. Prices to match too.

Yes - as I was saying, I think in the other thread, getting Booths to move south is one of the biggest historic milestones associated with this!

[jabbaboy]

Very debateable whether this is the first electric forecourt mind, there's been one in Sunderland for over a year now - https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x ... C3oECBgQAw. Guess it depends what you count the forecourt as.

[trickstat]

I think the only Booths I've ever been in was in Windermere (the town not the lake!). Got a rhubarb yoghurt that was the nicest yoghurt I've ever had.

[Chris Bertram]

Nearest Booth's to us is in Knutsford, I think, but the Ulverston store was very impressive when on holiday up that way.

[roadtester]

Very debateable whether this is the first electric forecourt mind, there's been one in Sunderland for over a year now - https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x ... C3oECBgQAw. Guess it depends what you count the forecourt as.

Interesting - a friend of mine in the NE was asking me if I'd heard of Fastned. I had, but didn't realise they were already in the UK, which is presumably why she was asking me.