Zero Carbon Charge has pledged R9.4 billion for the development of off-the-grid renewable-energy powered electric vehicle (EV) charging stations along South Africa’s major national highways.
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Zero Carbon Charge has pledged R9.4 billion for the development of off-the-grid renewable-energy powered electric vehicle (EV) charging stations along South Africa’s major national highways.
Part of Charge’s countrywide roll-out of charging stations on all national roads, including the N1 and N2, it will include a truck charging and battery swapping route along the N3 highway between Durban and Johannesburg, it said this week at the KwaZulu-Natal Investment Conference. It will also see the development of 17 solar-powered passenger vehicle charging stations on the route.
The charging stations form part of the 120 renewable EV charging facilities that the company is developing across South Africa, spaced at 150km intervals, to ensure commuters can travel long distances in EVs. An additional 120 electric truck charging stations will also eventually be developed on major highways.
Cape Town entrepreneur and co-founder of Charge, Joubert Roux, who spoke to the Mail & Guardian on the sidelines of the conference, said the company had targeted all the national roads “because we think that migration to EVs is only going to happen if people have got the confidence that they can drive anywhere on a national road and be able to use ‘always-on’ green charging stations every 150km.
“You are not going to buy yourself an electric vehicle unless you know you can drive from here to Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, so the first phase will be every 150km along all the national roads,” he said.
“We decided to be completely off grid, completely green. We basically build a solar farm, install battery storage and then we install a backup generator because, obviously, in coastal regions in the Western Cape the weather can be a concern.”
Security of supply is 97% in the Northern Cape and 87% in coastal areas, Roux said.
“We are beneficiating sunshine, which is what makes this project impactful — the fact that every kilowatt hour that we generate and sell is localised. Every town in which we build a charging station, that community becomes part of the energy value chain for vehicles, which is remarkable because it’s permanent, it’s not a short-term project,” he said.
The company will be commissioning its first charging station in Wolmaransstad in North West on 28 November. Roux said the roll-out phase of the project, which will include convenience stores at each station, would create 6 500 jobs and about 15 jobs would be created per site after completion.
“In our first phase we are rolling out 120 sites. Each one of those will have six ultra-fast dispensers. It will be a 480 kilowatt charger with three, 500 amp dispensers and three 200 amp dispensers. And then we’ll also install two 22kW chargers for hybrids,” he said.
The project had initially focused on light motor vehicles but the company had been approached by overnight truckers and had modified it to accommodate one, two, three, five and eight tonne trucks on a separate network.
“The migration to electric vehicles is not a vehicle migration, it is an energy migration. People talk about net zero by 2050 without realising what an enormous undertaking that is, and what almost a revolution that is, because we’re localising all of that energy,” Roux said.
“We’re keeping all the money in the local economy. If we manage to migrate the entire truck fleet on our road today to electric vehicles, the country will save R300 billion a year in foreign exchange and that is the long-term strategy.”
Roux said the company had partnered with equipment manufacturer Sany Corporation to develop its truck charging stations.
“We are doing the N3 simply because it is so traffic dense. There are 9 500 vehicles on that road per day. We are looking at building six charging stations and already have our first two land-use applications in and the environmental process is quite far advanced,” he said.
“To keep 200 trucks on the road per day, we’ll have to install 170 megawatts worth of solar generation capacity and 360 megawatt hours of battery storage. So, it’s simply an enormous undertaking, but we’ve reached the point where it’s economically viable, and that’s the critical thing.”
Roux said the projects were viable because battery prices were halving every three years and the cost of solar generation had dropped over the past 50 years.
“For the same equipment we’ve been installing in Wolmaransstad, if we had to order that today, it would cost 60% less,” he said.
Each charging station will cost R25 million and each truck station will cost R600 million. The company is targeting a consumer price of R8 per kilowatt hour of energy supplied and will be commissioning its first charging station in Wolmaransstad in Gauteng on 28 November.
Charge signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the department of economic development, tourism and environmental affairs (EDTEA), in support of the project, at the conference.
The company said the department and the Trade and Investment Agency of KwaZulu-Natal had committed to acting as a “one-stop shop” for the development of the network in the province, which will include a focus on reducing the regulatory red tape that is hampering approval processes for building the stations.
Both entities will also identify future electric passenger vehicle charging sites and locations for the development of off-grid electric truck charging sites.
“We are proud to partner with EDTEA in developing this network across KwaZulu-Natal’s agricultural regions. Farmers are essential to this effort, and we are committed to providing them with added revenue streams through a share of up to 5% of the revenue generated by charging stations on their land, as well as surplus electricity,” Roux said.
“This landmark agreement marks a significant step forward in KwaZulu-Natal’s transition to sustainable energy and transportation, preparing the province for the shift to EVs in South Africa.”
KwaZulu-Natal economic development MEC Musa Zondi said the launch of the green charging stations marked a “transformative step in our journey towards a carbon-neutral economy”.
“The MOU underscores our commitment to not only reducing our carbon footprint but also creating new economic opportunities and enhancing energy resilience in our communities.
“We hope that KwaZulu-Natal can set a bold example for other provinces on how to achieve sustainable growth that benefits both our citizens and the planet,” Zondi said.
This MOU aligns with similar partnerships the company has in other provinces, including the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Limpopo and Free State.
According to the company’s research, an EV charged from Eskom’s national power grid indirectly emits 5.8 tonnes of CO2 per year. By comparison, an average petrol-powered car emits 4.4 tonnes of CO2 per year, highlighting that simply swapping petrol cars for grid-powered EVs won’t help reduce emissions.