Dundee City Council has opened its fourth public EV charging hub that puts ‘innovation, sustainability, and accessibility’ for all EV drivers at the heart of its design.
Launched in conjunction with Swarco Smart Charging, the ‘Clepington Road EV Charging Oasis’ comprises five rapid 50kW chargers and a single 150kW ultra rapid charger and adds another 12 charge points to the city’s public charging provision.
Justin Meyer, managing director of Swarco Smart Charging said: “Accessibility is not negotiable. EV bays must be designed with maximum accessibility but there is still a serious lack of formal guidance and regulation to ensure that public charging is accessible to all EV drivers.
“There are many factors that dictate how accessible an EV charging location is, from the physical space and hardware to all elements of the user experience, which means there are many potential barriers.
“We recognise that more needs to be done to achieve fairness and inclusivity, so our aim is to remove as many of those potential barriers as possible particularly when it comes to wheelchair access, which is why we have been collaborating with experts on this issue.”
Smart and sustainable cities consultancy, Urban Foresight, along with disabled drivers, charities and manufacturers were involved in the design, which also incorporates a number of low-carbon and sustainable technologies.
SWARCO has worked with its battery energy storage systems partner, Connected Energy, which uses second life EV batteries to store solar energy collected from the solar panels installed on the hub’s canopy roof.
This stored energy will support the energy demands of the site. Swarco has also worked with water purification company, Bluewater, to include rainwater harvesting technology, which is the first time this has been done at a UK EV charging location.
The system has been incorporated in the canopy roof to capture rainwater which is then filtered into the purifying machine so that EV drivers can refill water bottles with fresh drinking water, or to top up their windscreen washers.
“EV charging locations present us with opportunities to do more to minimise our environmental impact – opportunities that go beyond the obvious exclusion of fossil fuel,” Meyer added.
Funding for the Clepington Road EV Charging Oasis came from ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), OZEV (Office for Zero Emission Vehicles), Transport Scotland, and Dundee City Council.
Mark Flynn (pictured), convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee, opened the site and said: “To maintain momentum and retain the class-leading position the city is already in we are increasingly replacing obsolete and outmoded fossil-fuel vehicles in our own fleet with electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
“A key part of that is of course ensuring that we have the charging network in place to keep up with the greater demand.
“This new hub, as well as others coming on stream in the city, will keep Dundee at the forefront of low and zero emission vehicle use and innovative technology which benefits us all by delivering cleaner air for the city.”
Along with the public chargers, infrastructure is soon to be completed at this site on Clepington Road to support depot vehicles of DCC. This side of the site will hold 21 7kW chargers, one 100kW charger, and two 50kW chargers to power over 200 vehicles.
Pic credit: Mark Thomas
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