Inside what looks like no time in any respect, a number of 12–24 stall Tesla Superchargers have come on-line in Denmark. They arrive up so quick that they seem on web site earlier than any bulletins on both native information or Tesla’s personal web site — and even the maps in Tesla vehicles are conscious of them!
New Tesla Supercharger: Kliplev, Denmark (24 stalls) https://t.co/AOuLlp4IV2 pic.twitter.com/9N6oe9DUlH
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) January 5, 2023
As of now, 16 Supercharger stations are on-line in Denmark (of which 13 are open to non-Tesla EVs), and one other 14 are deliberate. Once I purchased my Tesla in 2019, there have been 9 stations on-line. It surprises me that this small nation is prioritized this extremely. I do know we’re not near a number of the Supercharger densities in areas of the USA, the place a state like Florida (which is comparable in dimension to Denmark) has about 100 stations, however nonetheless, the aggressive progress is astonishing. (Notice that whereas Florida and Denmark could also be comparable in dimension geographically, Denmark has a inhabitants of ~5.9 million whereas Florida has a inhabitants of ~21.8 million.)
There are after all different charging networks than Tesla’s, however since Tesla vehicles promote within the highest numbers and its community appears to broaden the quickest, it’s smart to keep watch over the Tesla ecosystem as a benchmark of issues to come back. Carolyn Fortuna made a rating of the varied charging networks within the USA. Tesla appears to have checked out this “rooster and egg” scenario from the start and determined to do each as quick as potential.
The Grid
When Tesla opened its first Supercharger stations in California again in 2012, I bear in mind the imaginative and prescient was to have photo voltaic PV and battery storage on the websites. This isn’t widespread at this time (I can consider just one Supercharger station in Denmark with photo voltaic protecting the stalls), but it surely raises an important query: Will the grid be capable to deal with the load?
I wrote the opposite day that Denmark has reached 60% electrical energy era from renewables, primarily wind, and because of the intermittent nature of this provide, I typically take into consideration that idea of battery storage at charging stations. When the passenger automobile fleet is finally 100% EVs, the consumption share of whole electrical energy utilization will in all probability be about 5–10%
Screenshot from Energinet.dk on January 15, 2023.
The plan in Denmark is to quadruple the renewable electrical energy era, and the grid is slowly being constructed out to deal with these peaks of renewable era. Denmark is fortunate to have good connections to neighboring nations that may take a few of that further energy, others nations don’t have that privilege. Take a look at the snapshot above of an actual time scenario on a windy day, the place the nation exports 1.6 GW. The worth for electrical energy at this level was lower than 10 cents/kWh. It’s apparent that on a day like that, everyone with an EV is incentivised to cost their automotive at dwelling, however this ought to be mirrored closely at public chargers and Supercharger stations as properly, until a specific amount of battery capability is put in.
The Supercharger
Sure, I’ll use the phrase Supercharger. Tesla is the chief on this discipline, and Supercharging is a good time period for what occurs once you go to one: You cost tremendous quick, it’s tremendous handy, and it’s tremendous dependable. Nonetheless, in a spot like Denmark, with its quantity of intermittent renewable electrical energy provide, it ought to be a no brainer to put in giant stationary battery capability on the websites, like Tesla Megapacks. I feel that’s precisely what will occur. The one cause this has not occurred but is battery cell manufacturing constraints. I feel it could be smart to comply with Tesla’s Megapack manufacturing fee over the approaching years, and even months.
Properly, not all Supercharger stations can be found on a regular basis! Photograph By Esben Krog Heltoft.
If Tesla needs to maintain charging charges competitively low however nonetheless have a secure income, then the capability to load up on very low-cost electrical energy and simply nibble at or promote it again to the grid when costs are excessive not solely helps balancing the grid by being bidirectional, but additionally allows very excessive charging speeds for purchasers on web site. One Megapack holds 3.9 MWh of power, which is sufficient to cost about 80 EVs with a 75 kWh battery from 15% to 80% SOC! That’s a 12-stall Supercharger just about absolutely occupied for as much as 5 hours off the grid. Will Megapacks be put in on present Supercharger V2 and V3 stations? Perhaps not, however they actually will on V4!
The Concern
This being January 2023, with CleanTechnica specializing in EV charging this month, I’ll say a number of phrases on vary nervousness. I can solely do this as a result of a have had the worry myself. I by no means ran out of juice, although. Why? As a result of I belief (and worry) the indicator within the automotive that tells me how a lot vary is left. To be honest, particularly in some earlier fashions I drove years again when batteries have been tiny, a protracted stretch of headwind on the freeway would typically threaten to spoil my ETA — as a result of I needed to decelerate and/or discover a charger to top-up. However vary nervousness induced white knuckles on the steering wheel are a factor of the previous with battery capacities over 50 kWh in my view. You actually should be fully ignorant to the vary indicator, and never have made any effort to study the place chargers are situated, to get stranded. In that case, you’d be equally more likely to get stranded in a fuel-burning automobile.
I feel on this event in 2019 was the final time I felt a bit bit anxious. Photograph by Jesper Berggreen.
Nonetheless, for all of the folks I do know who’re ICE automobile house owners and inform me they’re occupied with shopping for an EV, the vary and cost conundrum is their principal concern. However behold, all of the folks I do know who’ve really purchased an EV, with no matter tiny or giant battery, by no means speak to me about vary nervousness. Come to think about it, folks with EVs don’t speak that a lot about their vehicles with one another. I mentioned the latest worth cuts by Tesla with a colleague the opposite day, and she or he mentioned her husband was keen to commerce of their 3-year-old Hyundai Kona EV for a Mannequin Y now, however she refused. “Nothing fallacious with the Kona,” she famous, and she or he highlighted that it was grime low-cost to service and run.
The Future
I might extremely advocate watching Jordan Giesige’s video on Megacharging the place he will get into the nitty-gritty, going all the best way from the decade-old Tesla Supercharger V1 to the approaching V4 in addition to the alleged semi-only Megacharger:
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