The City of Dundee in Scotland planned and paid for an EV charging hub on a former gas station site, and they pretty much thought of everything.
A coastal city with a population of 148,000, Dundee takes its EV charging infrastructure rollout seriously: To date, it’s got 370 EV charging stations, 185 of which are owned by the city, and it’s nowhere near being done. (For size comparison, Savannah, Georgia, has a population of 148,000, and it has 275 EV charging stations.)
Dundee opened a new EV charging hub this year on Clepington Road that features 12 charge points, or five 50kW chargers and a single 150 kW charger.
There’s a convenience store and two restaurants across the street, and there are three beauty salons within a two-minute walk. Fairmuir Park is nearby if drivers want to take a walk while charging. There’s also a bench at the hub to just hang out.
Now, here’s where it starts to get clever. It’s covered by solar canopies that connect to two onsite battery storage units. The battery units house reused EV batteries, and each unit is capable of storing 100 MWh of electricity annually. That’s enough energy to power 5,000 charging sessions, based on a 20 kWh average consumption per session, or 13.5 sessions each day.
The batteries store excess solar power, and they charge from the grid at off-peak times when tariffs are cheaper and electricity is less carbon-intensive. That helps Dundee reduce costs and cut emissions.
The designers of the EV charging hub also put a lot of thought into accessibility. Measures include longer cables to allow for wheelchair-access vehicles, as well as level access from the parking bay to the charge point for wheelchair users and strollers. Carefully considered wheel stops prevent EVs from encroaching on the space between the front of the bays and the chargers.
And in a feature I’ve not seen elsewhere (but let me know in the comments section if you have), the charging hub’s solar canopy roof harvests rainwater for drinking. The rainwater is captured and funneled downward using gravity to a purifying machine powered by the solar canopy, where it’s filtered. That enables EV drivers to fill up their water bottles with complimentary clean drinking water. The rainwater is free from salinity and pollutants that can be found in groundwater.
The city is planning to fit all of its EV charging hubs with water-purifying machines. Once plans for installing EV charging hubs every 500 meters (1,640 feet) are met, the public will have access to clean water every half kilometer.
What do you think of Dundee’s EV charging hub? Let me know in the comments below.
Read more: This new EV charging station drives around airport tarmacs
Photos: Dundee City Council
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