Looks great and talks for further expansion of other hubs.
Was just coming to post this.
Maybe a mod could merge with the existing Airtricity thread?
I knew reading the Westmeath examiner would pay off at some stage 😁.
Great plans but wouldn't be convinced the expansion will be as big as there is 3 operational by end of 2023 they'll be doing well.
I think there's some good forward thinking here from SSE. They're putting in chargers that can be used by trucks and buses, and locating the hubs in business parks where there is already good grid connections available
With 30 hubs scheduled you'd hope they'll try for one in each county in the Republic.
This is a great announcement and all, but the amount of investment seems a bit low for what they are saying they'll deliver..
They will invest €35m in 30 ultra-rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging hubs across the country over the next four years.
So that works out roughly €1.16m per hub, and yes some will be larger, and some smaller, but still, ESBN will be looking for a large chunk of that €35m to supply/upgrade 30 sites of HPC units!!
True, but it also makes you wonder about whether ESB are getting good value for money for their installations
Seems there'd be better economy of scale installing 10 chargers at a handful of key locations than 2 chargers at lots of locations
That would be dependent on the capacity of the existing grid network though.
Absolutely, and putting a charging hub in a business park that already has a bunch of warehouses and factories with high powered grid connections would likely save a lot of money
Yeah it would from that perspective but how much MVA are you adding to the business park demands? Can the existing grid supply that? If not it’s potentially a big upgrade job
I see your point but I don't think 1.5MW is going to be that big a difference. I know Blanch for example has several pharmaceutical plants with high power demands
Most likely there'll be a load shedding deal in place with the chargers, so their connection might get limited sometimes in peak demand
Actually my main worry would be around the facilities for drivers. Are SSE going to be building cafés and bathrooms, I don't think there's anything in most of those business parks at the moment
Well 1.5MW might not be that big a deal in blanch where there’s probably excess capacity but in a business park in Roscommon or wherever this could mean a serious amount of grid reinforcement for networks to do such as updating an outlet from a 38kv station and the associated overhead line that would feed that etc etc.
More of a problem than facilities is safety. Business parks tend to be empty out of hours, and you have to get out of the car, plug in and possibly mess around with the charger to get it working. At least somewhere like motorway services, there will always be someone around or the risk of someone showing up to put off people with ulterior motives. These will be busy during business hours, but will get very little use outside it.
Yes absolutely true, I remember when I first got the Leaf I had to use the fast charger at Nissan Airside before I got my home charger
It was in the dark after everything was closed and the place was deserted. Needless to say I didn't stand around after plugging the car in
Not really. Larger scale will mean upgrading infrastructure, smaller scale can be significantly cheaper
Sounds great but going to have the same charging problem with those spots on the right.
That's easygo, and have their own network thread https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058111343/easygo-public-chargers
From.other thread...
I found a planning application for a 2X5 HPC near Texaco Ballycoolin
FW23A/0076
Maxol nearby also has a similar project approved
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They are also actively installing a real hub in Mullingar "10 vehicle"
A year later, now there is an SSE Airtricity app on Google Play store and two chargers are showing active (may be only tests)
https://www.plugshare.com/location/455013
Talk of a merger.
Only Irish site still not active yet
Total Energies and SSE create new partnership called Source aiming for 20% market share in uk/irl.
At their current speed of rollout I doubt very much that they will ever get to 20%
What have they got so far? Maybe feeling their way into it at first? TotalEnergies are a big operator in France I think.
Just reading RTE piece, they mention ball park €300M investment, so not insubstantial:
I see an app on Playstore "Source London". I wonder is there a name clash with the proposed name "Source" for this service?
Edit: Opps, I see that TotaEnergies owns Source London. So they're expanding that I guess.
There's another company called EV Source. Similar area of activity. Is there a clash with these?
In Ireland they have one site under construction but years behind. In April 2024 it seemed to be going in, stations showing on app then removed. It may launch this year.
Them seem to like the super hub business model but lots of talk nothing yet delivered.
Other possible future sites:
https://www.plugshare.com/location/539644
https://www.plugshare.com/location/573924
https://www.plugshare.com/location/593217
