Dundee City Council has opened a new EV charging hub which has been described by one participant as “the future of the service station”.
The new charging hub at Clepington Road, in central Dundee, features a solar canopy that can provide power for both the electric vehicle charge points and a purified drinking water system.
The chargers at the hub consist of four rapid 50kW chargers and a 150kW ultra rapid charger for public use. Solar panels fixed to canopy provide power to battery units on site which store this energy. These battery storage units contain 800kW of energy that can be consumed at the most suitable times, such as when chargers are in regular use.
Rainwater that falls on the canopy will also be collected and processed using multiple stages of advanced water filtration and purification technologies to create chilled and purified drinking water vended from the two on-site Bluewater dispensers.
“The new EV Hub with Bluewater hydration solutions in Dundee is a game changer because it will provide clean water for the city’s residents and visitors for free, while reducing pressure on municipal resources and helping to build greater water resilience,” said Bluewater founder and CEO Bengt Rittri.
“In the past, drivers went to a petrol station, filled up the car and often at the same time ended up purchasing a beverage in a single-use plastic bottle. The Dundee project represents the future of the service station, in being not only zero-emission but also zero-single-use-plastic.”
Along with the public chargers, infrastructure is soon to be completed at the site to support council vehicles. It will provide 21 7kW chargers, two 50kW chargers and one 100kW charger to power more than 200 vehicles. As with the public side, solar canopies will be positioned overhead but will be higher to accommodate depot vans.
