EquanimityEnergy has developed a pilot project featuring the installation of two charging hubs with distributed energy generation.
Initially, around 16 points are planned for Villa Doménech, and 20 for the municipality of Villena.
The project also includes the evaluation of other technologies, such as battery storage and potentially, in the future, the implementation of bidirectional charging.
By incorporating photovoltaic generation capacity through bifacial panels, the hubs are less reliant on the availability and connection of the electrical grid, using it only as a backup support.
The stations will have a solar energy capacity of 2.91 MWp and 3.74 MWp, respectively.
There, users will be able to charge their vehicles at a power of up to 350 kW, with the possibility of increasing this as new car models come onto the market.
Speaking to Mobility Portal España, Piet Holtrop, founder of EquanimityEnergy, explains: “This project started as an idea in 2020, during the pandemic, and will be inaugurated in 2024.”
The pilot will begin in the province of Alicante, with a location in Villa Doménech, in the Caragus section of the municipality of Pedreguer, and in the municipality of Ondara.
This location offers direct access to the CV-724, which connects Pedreguer with Denia, and is located close to exit 62 of the AP7 in Ondara, Dénia, Xàbia.
Initially, it is anticipated that approximately 16 charging points for passenger cars will be installed in Villa Doménech.
Later on, they will also install charging stations for trucks in Villa Doménech.
Over the next 30 years, they plan to expand this number to 80 points, given the dimensions of the land, which covers approximately 6.4 hectares.
They will also have a secondary station.
This is a site that will be located in the neighborhood’s commercial portal and will function as a satellite of the main stations.
It will occupy a space of 500 square metres and will house four 350 kW charging points, two of which will be suitable for trucks.
“Most of the vehicles will be supplied with photovoltaic energy generated less than two kilometres away, thanks to a grid-close self-consumption configuration,” explains Holtrop.
The second hub will be located in the municipality of Villena, specifically on the A31 motorway, which connects Madrid with Alicante and converges with the AP7 motorway and the TEN-T Mediterranean corridor.
This station will start with 20 fast charging points and will have a photovoltaic energy generation capacity of up to 3.74 MWp.
It will have a storage system that is robust enough to offer uninterrupted charging services, “with a response quality superior to that of the public network.”
This choice takes into account the influx of users, not only of cars, but also of trucks that circulate there, since the stations will allow the charging of heavy vehicles.
As well as “the considerable capacity for photovoltaic generation” offered by these sites.
Both locations have additional space that will allow for expansion of power generation capacity in the future.
This collaborative project, which seeks to mitigate the climate crisis, is closing its first capital increase at the end of July, and plans to begin the first phase of construction shortly, at the end of Q3.
EquanimityEnergy: Step by step to comply with the AFIR
The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) regulates the implementation of charging and refueling stations for all vehicle segments.
This sets specific deployment targets to be met between 2025 and 2030.
From 2025, fast charging stations with a capacity of at least 150 kW for passenger cars and vans must be installed every 60 km on the trans-European transport network (TEN-T).
Charging hubs for heavy vehicles with a minimum available power of 350 kW must also be implemented every 60 km in the TEN-T core network.
And at intervals of 100 km on the overall TEN-T network from 2025. It will have to have full coverage by 2030.
“With our stations we have the ambition to be part of this network. We develop, build and operate them for ourselves and for third parties,” says the founder of EquanimityEnergy, which, in addition to being a generator, EMSP and CPO, will soon also be a marketer.
To enable these advances, he stressed that it is necessary to strengthen the Spanish public electricity grid, since it will be the main threat to achieving these objectives.
The solution, in his opinion, lies in the implementation of distributed generation, with a higher efficiency ratio that guarantees that the highest percentage of renewable energy generated on site is delivered directly to the wheels of vehicles, without network losses in between.
The impact on CO2 emissions avoided is four times greater than in residential or industrial self-consumption, because what is displaced here is a highly fossil mix.
Despite this, “Spain is not lacking in ambition and, as one of the main references in the generation and integration of renewable energies in the electrical system, it is capable of carrying out this model,” he says.
