By ATN
Author: ZOOZ Power, VP Product, Udi Tzuri
There is growing pressure to rapidly expand the rollout of ultra-fast charging infrastructure but this is a challenge when the existing grid limits the power available. Flywheel power boosters can overcome this problem and enable new sites to quickly come on stream, delivering a better charging experience for customers and greater profitably for charge point operators.
The worldwide shift towards electric vehicles is gaining momentum. Last summer, sales of EVs overtook diesel for the first time in Europe – a milestone event. And the US – the home of the large displacement V8 – is also well on the way towards an electric future, with the government setting the ambitious goal of having half of all new vehicles sold to be EVs by 2030. Worldwide, the International Energy Agency believes that share needs to reach around 60 per cent for us all to remain on track to achieve net zero CO2 emissions in 2050.
While the global market share of electric vehicles increases year-on-year, it is essential that expansion of public charging infrastructure keeps pace in order to ensure continued growth in EV sales. As the International Energy Agency states in its Trends in electric vehicle charging report, ‘public charging and the interoperability of its infrastructure is key to enabling more widespread adoption’. ACEA also stresses the same fundamental requirements if Europe’s CO2 reduction targets are to be achieved, saying that ‘Fast chargers are integral to the transition to zero-emission mobility.’
However, the higher power levels required for the ultra-fast charging that is essential for making charging sessions convenient and acceptable to consumers are expected to exceed the capacity of today’s grid transmission and distribution systems in many areas. This includes the more remote locations along highways between major cities where they will be invaluable in making long distance EV journeys as simple as they are now with combustion engine vehicles.
But upgrading the grid to handle these higher power demands involves complex, expensive and lengthy processes – processes which can inhibit charging infrastructure investment and development because the business case for charging network operators and owners of prime locations such as filling stations and convenience stores becomes much more challenging.
Currently, ultra-fast EV chargers can only be installed in areas with access to high-voltage lines and sufficient grid power. This leaves most roads – particularly those in rural areas – without viable or cost-effective solutions. Upgrading the existing infrastructure in those areas might take several years, even if the funding is available. And that’s a massive problem, because a recent survey by McKinsey finds that the number one consideration for consumers using public chargers is not cost, location, or reliability, but charging speed.
At ZOOZ Power we are helping to solve the bottleneck between growing ultra-fast charging needs and limited grid capabilities by providing a bridging solution that maximises existing capacities until enhancements can be implemented. We are achieving this with our patented flywheel technology at the heart of our flagship ZOOZTER-100 system.
It acts as a power booster that temporarily supplements the grid’s power with the energy stored in the flywheel, and also optimizes grid usage – during peak demand periods, for example – through intelligent energy management, efficiently and cost-effectively managing the site’s available energy resources. This enables ultra-fast EV chargers to operate at peak capacity by balancing power drawn from the grid with our system’s energy boosts, obviating the need for immediate grid upgrades – upgrades that require significant upfront investments.
These capabilities enable charge point operators to commission new sites in a relatively short time, allowing them to quickly generate revenue and facilitate the profitable long-term rollout of the ultrafast charging infrastructure that is essential to support the continued adoption of EVs.
Batteries can perform a similar role, but they can only deliver a limited number of charge/discharge cycles – often just a few thousand, and less than that if they use second-life cells – before needing replacement. Our flywheels can provide up to 200,000 high-power charge/discharge cycles over a 15-year life, thereby lowering operational costs. And unlike batteries, which use toxic and flammable materials that cannot all be recycled and must therefore be disposed of, our flywheels are made from recyclable steel. And nor do we use critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, or cobalt. As a result, our technology is a more robust, more durable, more cost-effective, and more sustainable power booster solution.
Grid upgrades are essential to support the global transition to EVs, and that’s a change we all want to see. But for areas where grid power is not yet enough to deliver the total power consumption needed for charging, we can offer charge point operators an ideal solution. And at such time as the grid at those sites has been improved, our technology still remains a valuable asset for them because the additional power it provides can further enhance utilization rates, and therefore profitability. An additional benefit is that our units can also be easily relocated to new sites that need boosting, reducing capital expenditure and helping to further accelerate the roll-out of charging infrastructure where it’s needed the most.
In Europe alone, a study by McKinsey finds that by 2030, a tenfold increase in charging points is needed – and to scale up from the current 340,000 to 3.4 million could cost in excess of €240 billion. The challenge is compounded by the investments needed in the grid to ensure those chargers can deliver the convenience that customers expect, and that’s going to take time. In the interim, technologies such as ours can help charge point operators to bridge the gap and keep the transition to e-mobility on track.
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