The UK and other countries will struggle to expand charging infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, to keep pace with the growth in electric vehicles, a study predicts.
The reason is that current electricity grids are built around coal-fired power plants where industrial and domestic need has traditionally been highest and are already “struggling to adapt to the needs of electric vehicles”.
According to IDTechEx report, Off-Grid Charging for Electric Vehicles 2024-2034: Technologies, Benchmarking, Players and Forecasts, off-grid charging solutions – using the likes of solar, wind, or hydrogen fuel-cell charging – could be the best medium-term solution to the limitations of the grid. However, each comes with challenges.
Overhead solar power canopies, says IDTechEx, can be set up “relatively quickly and with ease”. However, they only work effectively in areas where there is a high degree of sunlight; otherwise, the cost of installation may outweigh the benefits, it adds. Wind generation methods can also be expensive to deploy and are “in the earlier stages of development”.
Hydrogen fuel-cell charging is also a potential solution but depends on a ready supply of so-called green hydrogen to be considered a carbon-reducing technology, it says.
