The federal Australian Renewable Energy Agency revealed on Tuesday that it would spend $871,000 to roll out 50 points, a first for Australia. With this initiative, electric vehicle owners can plug into power poles on NSW streets under a trial, according to perthnow.
The planned power pole points, which enable top-ups and overnight charging, are expected to be installed across Australia as per the Agency CEO Darren Miller.
At present, 1.9 million, or nearly one in four Australian households, are not able to charge an electric vehicle at home, which could be addressed by this recently announced project. Correspondingly, Intellihub will install chargers on power poles to aid drivers who live in apartments, townhouses, or other units without access to on-site charging in nine local government regions.
Wes Ballantine, CEO of Intellihub, claimed that power poles are accessible, safe, and useful for charging.
By 2025, it’s anticipated that EV sales in Australia might reach up to 10% which presents a future problem: Australia may not cater all EVs by that time.
“That equates to an extra 120,000 new EVs on our local streets each year. It’s likely that many of these car owners may be unable to charge their EVs from home,” he said.
According to the NRMA, eight out of ten EV owners currently charge their vehicles at home, while others use fast chargers on highways, shopping centers, and even in their workplaces. If Australia aims to elevate its transition to electric vehicles, projects like this are necessary to encourage people to switch to EVs.
Nonetheless, the new power pole points are confirmed to be built among the nine local councils of Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick, Lake Macquarie, Ryde, Singleton, Parramatta, Northern Beaches, and Inner West.
The $2.04 million project will be powered by Origin Energy, and all of the energy needed to charge the vehicles will be matched with certified renewable energy that is added to the grid. Impressively, the electrical grid will be accessed via an app for billing purposes.
Meanwhile, other local councils that are not included in the initial rollout for the trial will also receive such power pole points if the trial succeeds.
