In February, electric vehicle (EV) ride-sharing platform BluSmart announced a deal with Tata Power to recharge its electric cabs using solar energy, ensuring no fossil fuels are used in their operation. The deal shows a viable path for cleaner and cheaper mobility options.
“This makes us a 100% emissions-free company,” says Tushar Garg, Co-founder & CEO, BluSmart Charge. “We will be sourcing 30 megawatts (MW) per year from a plant in Bikaner, Rajasthan, which will be used to operate our entire fleet in Delhi-NCR and Bangalore.”
In similar efforts, MG Motors and Gurugram-based BatX Energies have launched a solar-powered EV charging station in IIT-Delhi in February.
This concept of solar-power EV charging stations is fairly new. As the name suggests, it involves using solar panels — instead of fossil-fuel based energy — to generate electricity which is used to recharge EVs. There are many ways to implement this: for example, some companies use batteries to store the power, others generate electricity and feed it into the grid.
These developments encourage the hope that public mobility, at least, can be powered by environmentally friendly sources more easily. Such installations lend support to Transparency Market Research’s estimate that the global market size for solar-powered EV charging stations was $204.6 million in 2022 and would reach $370.4 million by 2031. Global firms like Tesla (US), Fastened (Netherlands), iSun (US) and Empower Solar (US) have also developed solar EV charging stations and deployed these in their areas of operations. Experts estimate that as people start using more electric vehicles, renewable energy-powered charging stations would become common.
According to a report by KPMG, India is expected to have 102 million EVs by 2030, which means there will be a need for 2.9 million public charging stations. The year 2023 saw a 50% increase in EV sales, says CareEdge. According to the Ministry of Power, there were 12,146 public EV charging stations in the country as on February 2, 2024. These numbers indicate the need for alternative sources of energy to charge EVs in a clear way.
Experts and industry players say using solar energy to charge EVs could be a viable solution both from a sustainability as well as monetary standpoint.
Solar powered EV charging station by BatX Energies and MG Motors at IIT-Delhi
Rise and shine
The concept of solar power can be implemented in various ways. The solar-powered EV charging station provided by MG Motors and BatX Energies uses second-life batteries — used batteries that can still be employed for stationary charging — to charge the EVs. This ensures EV batteries are repurposed, reducing or delaying the disposal process.
Vikrant Singh, Co-founder & CTO, BatX Energies, says that the whole concept of the solar charging stations have come from two factors: One is that there is instability in electricity supply at certain places, and the second is that the EV cycle has now started delivery of more second-life batteries.
“BatX energies recycle these batteries into usable form. Here, we have put up a solar panel on top to charge the second-life battery the whole day. When you want to charge your electric vehicle, you can directly charge the vehicle from these batteries. So it reduces time and it is 100% renewable energy,” he says.
Last year, power distributor BSES set up two solar EV charging stations in Delhi — at Bhikaji Cama Place and South Extension II — for two-, three- and four-wheelers. These are hybrid charging stations that will use solar energy in the daytime to charge the vehicles and the grid energy at night.
ATUM Charge, a green EV charging station owned by real estate firm Visaka Industries, makes its own solar roof. In 2022, the company installed 250 such units across India — 44 in Tamil Nadu, 48 in Telangana, 36 in Maharashtra, 23 in Karnataka, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 23 in Andhra Pradesh, 23 in West Bengal, 14 in Haryana and 24 in Odisha.
For BluSmart, the solar power plant in Bikaner feeds the energy into the grid under the One Grid One Nation initiative. The company’s charging points in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru consume energy from the grid.
Rohit Tikku, CEO of Delhi-based solar panel maker Bluebird Solar, says that 6 solar panel modules are needed to generate 3KW energy. Here, AC is not converted into DC and then fed into the EV charging station but that the entire power acquired from the solar power is in DC, and thus can be directly fed into the EV, he explains.
Rohit Tikku, CEO of Bluebird Solar
The charging time difference between solar EV charging stations and a non-solar one is pretty much the same.
“If the EV charging stations are combined with battery backup, they can work round the clock as the energy stored during the daytime can be used at night to charge the vehicles, when the sun is not around,” he says.
This is beneficial in monetary terms too, says Gautam Mohanka, CEO, Gautam Solar, which makes solar panels in Delhi. He cites a report from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi which stated that per-unit electricity cost from solar panels is Rs 2.50 to Rs 3.50 compared with Rs 6 to Rs 7 for electricity obtained from the grid.
BluSmart’s Garg calls it the cheapest form of electricity to be procured for any charging infrastructure across the country. “So there is a 100% monetary benefit of doing this, which also makes it a no-brainer that we should have been doing this long before,” he says.
But the cost of setting up a solar EV charging station is generally higher than that of setting up a conventional charging station. BatX’s Singh justifies the cost by stating the durability of the system. He says solar panels have a lifespan of 25 years and the battery the company is using will last for 4-5 years. For BatX, second-life batteries cost 50% lower than new batteries, thus reducing the production costs.
According to media reports, a solar-powered EV charging station can cost Rs 50,000 per KW more than conventional chargers.
Bluebird’s Tikoo points out that you can easily recover the money spent in establishing a solar station in 2-2.5 years.
Internationally, one of the biggest solar EV charging models has been that of Tesla. The US-based company launched its feature “Charge on Solar” on its app last year that gives Tesla owners the option to charge their car using solar energy. The company, apart from electric vehicles, also manufactures solar panels, solar roofs and a battery system to store the solar energy, known as Powerwall. The new feature enables a Tesla to be charged by Powerwall and Tesla’s solar panels.
BluSmart cabs in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR are now getting charged by solar energy transmitted through a Tata Solar power plant in Bikaner via One Grid One Nation initiative.
Teething troubles
One of the foremost challenges of setting up a solar recharging station for EVs is the lack of space. Tikoo explains that solar modules and cabling to the EV charging station have to be installed while creating a solar recharging station. But the space required to set up a station that uses electricity from the grid directly is very small. “... equal to the size of a tyre inflator, and that becomes your EV charging station. So, you can place it anywhere and easily fix it up. It reduces the space requirement,” he says.
Solar EV charging stations also need multiple charging points and outlets. Only then will it make sense and bring return on investment quickly, he says.
As for placing solar panels, global examples indicate multiple possibilities. Bloomberg reports that solar canopies can be placed on car parks, lakes, reservoirs and landfills, among others. They can even serve as carports. Adding a solar canopy over parking lots and garages can provide shade, safety and seamless charging for EVs, says Ben Jones, vice president of design and engineering at New York-based DSD Renewables, in the Bloomberg report.
BatX’s Singh says that there is an option to install bifacial solar over the traditional monocrystalline or polycrystalline solar because the latter consume 30% more area.
Monocrystalline and polycrystalline are two common types of solar panels used in various applications. In both types, only one side of the panel produces solar energy. In bifacial panels, both sides — top and bottom — produce electricity and so are known to be more efficient.
Apart from this, there are also flexible solar panels which can be moulded into any shape. BatX is working to integrate these into its systems.
The company also recycles batteries to extract high-purity components after their lifespan is over.
Gaurav Gupta, Deputy MD, MG Motor India, says that second-life batteries can be recycled to extract high-purity components, which can be used to manufacture new electronics or perhaps more EV batteries. This closes the loop and minimises environmental impact.
Among other challenges is maintenance. Singh says that solar needs a lot of cleaning and maintenance. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US has estimated that dirty solar panels can lose 50% of their efficiency compared to a clean solar panel.
The BatX Energies team. The company recycles EV batteries in usable form and after also extracts high-purity components after their lifespan is over.
“All the solar panels installed in India often give only 50% efficiency of the installed capacity because there are no cleaning modalities to do it. So, we are actually making a model where they should be self-cleaning,” he says.
Further, it is not just the solar panel but it is also important to maintain the EV charging infrastructure. Gautam Solar’s Mohanka says that there are a lot of technological developments that are happening across the EV charging stations. “A lot of charging stations have come up, but the required maintenance and upkeep is not catching up,” he says.
Brighter future
Setting up EV charging infrastructure with solar panels can also bring more jobs. What is interesting is that rural India needs such charging stations because of patchy power supply, and establishing them in such areas can also create jobs there.
Rural India suffers from patchy and costly electricity due to which renewable means of energy have found takers; and government as well as private initiatives have pushed it deeper. In 2022, Modhera in Gujarat was declared as India’s first round-the-clock solar-powered village.
Rohan Shravan, Founder and CEO of Tresa Motors.
In 2010, the government launched an off-grid solar PV applications programme in phases to cover setting up of home lighting systems, street lighting systems, power plants, pumps, lanterns and study lamps in rural areas. Till December 31, 2022, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy reported having installed 84,59,119 solar lamps/lanterns; 5,00,499 solar pumps; 9,44,802 solar street lights; and 17,23,479 solar home lighting systems.
While the Indian government actively establishes large-scale renewable energy plants, the challenge lies in distribution efficiency, says Rohan Shravan, Founder and CEO, Tresa Motors, a manufacturer of medium and heavy trucks. “A vision includes seamless transportation of clean energy nationwide, ensuring widespread accessibility to EV charging infrastructure. The involvement of small entrepreneurs and farmers in setting up solar plants on their lands is a promising development. This decentralised approach not only contributes to the renewable energy grid but also offers additional income streams, particularly benefitting rural areas,” he says.
Shravan adds that the model addresses the rural-urban electricity gap and creates opportunities for expanding EV charging infrastructure, closing the divide between tier-1 and tier-2 cities.
It is like having one plug to charge your electric car and light up Bharat, too.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/sustainability/india-is-installing-solar-powered-ev-charging-stations-will-it-work/articleshow/108285314.cms
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