World's Largest EV Charging Station With 258 Chargers Powered by Solar

[Think. Again.]

Sep. 24, 2023 10:01 AM ET by Cesar Miguel
Full Article: https://carbuzz.com/news/worlds-largest-ev-charging-station-with-258-chargers-makes-superchargers-look-inadequate

It has rows upon rows of superchargers. A whopping 258 ports in fact.
Powered by Solar.

Chinese car manufacturer Build Your Dreams (BYD) has partnered with multinational oil and gas company Shell to open a massive EV charging station in Shenzen, China. It features 258 public fast-charging points, making it the world's largest EV charging station.

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Due to its size, there's the question of whether it makes a huge dent in the power grid in its vicinity. This, however, isn't the case since Shell says the station can generate up to 300,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity on its own thanks to the facility's rooftop solar panels.

-snip-

Full Article: https://carbuzz.com/news/worlds-largest-ev-charging-station-with-258-chargers-makes-superchargers-look-inadequate

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. EV is the future of transportation.

Lets make the transition.

[Think. Again.]

2. Yes, and YES!

[liberal N proud]

3. Awesome

[sl8]

4. How much of the power comes from solar?

Just back of the envelope calculations, please double check my math.

Reuters says that 300,000 kWh from solar is per year.

At 75 kWh per charge, that's 4,000 charges per year from solar power, for the entire station. Divided by 258 charging points, that's about 15.5 charges per charging point per year. A little more than one charge per month, per charging point.

Unless I made a mistake with the numbers, that seems like a tiny fraction of the power required.

[Think. Again.]

6. I guess that depends on...

...how far along that grid is on transitioning to non-CO2 energy sources.

[sl8]

7. It's almost all coal & oil.

https://www.iea.org/countries/china

[Think. Again.]

8. Then they still have work to do...

...just like the U.S.

Luckily, the solar they DO have on the roof is helping in the right direction!

[sl8]

11. Yes, but calling the station "solar powered" seems a bit of a stretch. (updated)

Again, that's if the numbers are right. I'm still not sure about the 300,000 kWh per year figure. It just seems way, way took low to acomplish much. Maybe Reuters got it wrong.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/shell-opens-its-largest-ev-charging-station-globally-china-2023-09-19/

[Think. Again.]

12. I disagree...

...it's primary power is the solar panels, and since we have no idea if the stations are all running at 24/7 capacity as your math indicates, or if anyone even uses the darn thing. I'd say it's legitimate for the purpose of this conversation.

[sl8]

14. I never assumed 24/7 operation.

And that's irrelevant, anyway.

I calculated how many charges the stated solar capacity could provide, about 15.5 per charging point per year. I don't know how many charges per year a charging point averages, but 100 times that number would be 4 charges per day. Even that seems low.

On edit:
How do you know that the stations primary power is solar?

[Think. Again.]

16. You spoke about...

...the total of kwh's needed at all stations at 75 kwh per charge for a year.

And the article states "the station can generate up to 300,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity on its own thanks to the facility's rooftop solar panels."

[sl8]

19. No, I didn't.

Last edited Sun Oct 1, 2023, 09:11 AM - Edit history (1)

I calculated how many charges the solar capacity could provide, at 75 kWh per charge.

And, with that, I'll bow out. I really wasn't looking for a fight, I was trying to figure out if the solar capacity was as low as they said. It seems far too low.

Note that the articles don't refer to it as a solar powered station. All they say is that they have some solar power.

[Think. Again.]

20. I respect your bowing out...

...but I just wanted to say that I fully agree that we, the entire world, needs much more non-CO2 energy generation.

[OnlinePoker]

9. It also says it can generate "up to 300,000 kwh"

If 300k kwh is the rating of the cells, you have to look at an energy efficiency output of maybe 1/4 of that for the actual production, so 75,000 kwh. I think, like the Tesla charging stations in an earlier post, this is literally a Shell game with power being generated somewhere else.

[Think. Again.]

13. Could you please explain...

...why the generated kwh number statement doesn't refer to the actual output at the charging point, but is instead referring to a component in an efficiency formula? I don't understand the terminology of this field (my apologies).

[OnlinePoker]

18. In most cases with solar, maximum power is the theoretical limit under ideal conditions

Here's an explanation and I'll post the link below:

...Now, we need to understand what these ‘maximum power ratings’ actually mean. These are the solar panel outputs at ideal conditions. These ideal solar conditions are known as STC or Standard Test Conditions. These wattages are measured at 1,000W/m2, 25°C (77°F), and air density of 1.5 kg/m3....

...Example: In theory and in ideal conditions, 300W produces 300W of electrical output or 0.3 kWh of electrical energy per hour. In practice, however, 300W solar panel produces, on average (24-hour cycle), 46.9W output and 0.0469 kWh per hour.

https://thegreenwatt.com/how-to-calculate-solar-panel-output/

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So, they might very well be producing 300,000 kwh per year, but, by saying "up to" I expect they're saying that is what the theoretical maximum is and they are producing well below that.

[JPK]

5. EV's

I just sold my Jeep Grand Cherokee with a gas guzzling 4.7L V8 getting ~ 12mpg around town and bought a used 2019 Chevy Volt w/ 45k miles on the clock. I have had the Volt one week and have driven 215 miles all on battery @6.5 cents/kwh to charge. I would have spent at least $40.00 for regular gas for the same amount of miles. So I have spent less than $20.00 on my electric bill for the volt. I will also be elegible for a $4k tax rebate for buying a used hybrid this year. I sold my Jeep for $2800.00. I bought the Volt for $20k. So minus the $2.8k for the Jeep and $4k tax rebate, add to that the gas savings and the mileage I can charge back to my job, this car is almost paying for itself. I can drive 400 miles on the electric and then gas electric hybrid power combo getting almost 80 mpg on long distance driving. I should have done this sooner. I do still have my 1996 Jeep Cherokee Country, my baby, to keep my love of Jeeps around.

[Emile]

10. +1

[marble falls]

15. World largest and not even close to what Texas wind turbines need.

[Think. Again.]

17. I think your confusing...

...a single EV charging station with the amount of power the state of Texas gains from it's current wind installations, but I'm really not sure...

[CoopersDad]

21. EVs are unsustainabe, only marginally better than internal combustion.

We need to stop acting like all of our problems are solved with EVs.

Yes, some folks will always need vehicles, but we built our US world to suit automobile dependency when we were once independent of them, with homes and jobs in the same community.

We need to get back to that place where we can bike, drive, and/or take streetcars to get to daily destinations.

Not cars.

[Think. Again.]

22. I ABSOLUTELY agree!...

...but right now we have a very serious emergency with the amount of CO2 being poured into the atmosphere and EVs can help us reduce and eliminate that CO2.