Fastned, a Dutch electric vehicle charging specialist company along with Tesla have opened what they claim is the largest fast-charging park in Germany for electric vehicles, at the Hilden motorway junction of the A3 and A46, near Düsseldorf. Electric Vehicles with up to 300 kW capacity can be charged at the same time at eight Fastned stations on the site, which also includes 20 Tesla superchargers and additional stations provided by bistro operator Seed & Greet for staff and customers. Electric vehicles will be able to be charged with green electricity at the charging park some of it from on-site solar and wind generation and the project includes 2 MWh of battery storage.
Also Read: Tesla to construct US $1bn electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Texas, US.
The 44 charging points at the location are set to be expanded to 114 in future construction phases and all offer electricity from renewables, with some of the power supplied direct from a 336 kW photovoltaic system deployed on carports and from two small wind turbines. German battery manufacturer Tesvolt has supplied two energy storage containers with a total capacity of 2 MWh to temporarily store excess solar and wind power and to cut expensive peak loads which can arise when EVs are charged at the same time. The containers will also store green electricity when it is priced at its cheapest. The project planners assume the storage systems will pay for themselves within “a few years.”
The fast-charging stations are all set to be installed this year and the site owner plans to expand the PV array to a more-than-700 kW system. An office building will be added to the complex by the end of 2022 and the bakery will then operate ‘vertical farming’ between the buildings, cultivating lettuce, strawberries, and blueberries across 1,000m2 of wall space across four floors.
