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There are many villages on the slopes of the Andes in Bolivia, such as Tahana, where the power line is blocked, and families can only rely on kerosene lamps to fill the home with thick pungent smoke. Photo: Hubert Stadler/Corbis
I stood in the fading light of autumn in Bolivia, looking at-and most of the village of Tahana-Anthony Harckham, holding tools and wires in his hand, holding him more than 6 feet The Canadian frame is lifted to a small house with mud walls on a corrugated steel roof. With the glacier peaks of Mount Ilampe as the background and the bookends in the northern part of the Real Mountains in Bolivia, Anthony improvised a method of fixing a 15 x 20 cm solar panel with wood screws, and then he took it from the panel below Feed the wires into the eaves into the house. I squeezed into the small living room at home and watched Anthony and his wife Faith connect the wires to the 12-volt lead-acid battery pack. The battery pack was connected to a pair of lights through a switch box—each transparent plastic box was filled with more than a dozen. A white light-emitting diode or LED. One lamp is suspended from a narrow ceiling beam, while the other lamp is located on an adjacent slope that serves as a kitchen. When Harckhams finally pressed the toggle switch, the sun almost disappeared, and the LED light bounced, projecting a blue beam, causing the homeowners and their excited, chattering neighbors to smile.
Bolivian Beat: Tahana Village provides visitors with public meals, including traditional drum and panpipe music. Photo: Peter Fairley
Harckhams are a 62-year-old couple from Canmore, Alta, Canada. Their mission is to free remote communities from dependence on expensive kerosene lighting. Their solution is: LEDs can convert electrical energy into light relatively efficiently, powered by photovoltaic cells, and can reliably generate the necessary electrical energy from sufficient sunlight. More than 1 billion people in the world lack electricity at home, but the situation in Bolivia is particularly serious. Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America and one of the least electrified countries. In this Andean country, only one in every four rural communities enjoys a stable supply of electricity. Most rural workers in Bolivia rely on kerosene lamps to fill their homes with thick pungent smoke. Harckhams offers these farmers another option. The simple LED light they developed-12 white LEDs mounted on a hand-soldered circuit board-consumes only 1 watt and produces 30 lumens in a focused beam, which is as bright as a 20-watt incandescent bulb. This is not the headlight we are used to, but it is enough for reading, cooking or working.
However, Harckhams' greatest insight is more about people than technology. They designed a small volunteer operation that combines tourism and philanthropy: capable individuals in developed countries help fund lighting facilities in developing countries. The operation, called Luxtreks, has installed lighting systems in more than 700 rural households in Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, and Pakistan without spending a penny from the government. In contrast, Luxtreks hikers paid the equivalent of approximately US$750 per person, instead of their own travel expenses, to cover the lighting costs of 20 families. The money is not for profit, Harckhams pays it in its own way. Hikers travel with the couple and personally give gifts by installing LED lights by themselves. At the same time, this trip provides a unique in-situ experience for hikers, culturally far from their daily lives, just as they imagined. "When you walk into one of the houses, it's an eye-opening experience," Anthony said. "But it's not just at home. It's an engagement. You are closely related to the community."
In May, I traveled to Bolivia to meet with Harckhams to see if and how Luxtreks hikers and technology can change the lives of rural villagers. Our seven-person team will deviate from Luxtrek's norms: my wife Sara Beam, a historian, and I will be the closest person to a hiker, working like a hiker, but not contributing a financial premium. For this task, funds from the British charity Juniper Trust helped Harckhams pay for the equipment. In addition, the task requires the help of two agronomists and a French student, both of whom are affiliates of Cecasem, a non-governmental organization located in La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, aiming to promote rural development. We will not only install Luxtrek lighting systems in Tahana, but also visit two adjacent villages to do something Harckhams has never done before: check the lighting systems Luxtrek has installed in the past few years.
Turn it on: LED lights installed in a home in Tahana, photo: Peter Fairley
In the weeks leading up to this trip, the country seemed ready to fall into political chaos due to the government’s policy of supporting natural gas exports. Many Bolivians opposed this move, believing that foreign energy companies were taking away the country’s natural wealth. When we were about to leave for Bolivia, the farmers threatened to block the roads, which prompted acquaintances of the Hackham family in Bolivia to warn against going. But the Hackhams were not worried. They have already begun to anticipate that their journey will encounter obstacles—though usually not in the real sense—and they have calmly dealt with the political conflict in Bolivia. We will travel to Bolivia and then reach the destination in the Andes. It turned out that, fortunately, we did not encounter any obstacles.
What we found in the village showed both the boldness of Luxtrek's formula and its shortcomings. I will find that the operation is still in progress. Bolivia will force Harckhams to reassess their commitment to Luxtreks and ultimately reshape their technology and their working relationship with the rural people they serve.
Tahana is a village of 44 families that grows potatoes, corn, tea and other food on fertile but steep and rapidly eroding hillsides. In order to reach Tahana, our team rode a truck on uneven roads for four hours, from La Paz to the market and on foot to the town of Solata. From there we rented an open-top Toyota Land Cruiser and drove it for another two hours. It is now supported between 3000 meters of electrical wires, 90 kilograms of batteries and hundreds of LED lights, switch boxes and solar panels. At the end of the road, where the power line stopped, we met a dozen people from Tahana and a few donkeys. The plan is to drop the equipment down a ravine and then return to the village along a one-kilometer path. This is the second time the villagers have met Luxtreks. Two years ago, a Luxtreks team traversed Tahana on foot, illuminating neighboring villages hundreds of meters uphill on the way, which prompted the residents of Tahana to petition for the establishment of their own system. Now the Canadians are back.
Handy Light: The residents of Tahana received LED lights for their homes, churches and schools. Each lamp has a dozen white LEDs, which can be packed in a transparent plastic box. Photo: Peter Fairley
We arrived late in the afternoon, and after the official welcome of the secretaries-a rotating landholder committee-we opened a shop in a school that was idle due to a national teacher strike; we will use it as our assembly A base for components, meals, and strategy development. As night fell, we ate, and then went to our tent to sleep. We are both excited and worried because we know that there is still some arduous work ahead.
In the morning, our party’s two agronomists, Cecilio Quispe and Estanislao Poma, took the lead in formulating the installation plan. They are proficient in Aymará, an indigenous language common in the Bolivian Andes. They know the villagers and work with them through Cecasem to build irrigation systems, upgrade ovens and organize agricultural cooperatives. With the strong high-altitude sunlight evaporating the morning chill, we set off with the lighting kit. Anthony and Poma will work on the roof to install 2 watt solar panels, which are customized by a Chinese manufacturer from Harckhams. The rest of us divided into groups to wire the lights equipped with LEDs, which were purchased from dealers in Hong Kong.
That morning, I worked with Morgane Richomme, a French development student, who had just worked at Cecasem for two months. Our team also includes three villagers: Roberto Mamani, Mario Condori (one of the secretaries) and his son Vitaliano. Three Bolivians looked at all the parts of our connected circuit: solar panels to batteries, batteries to switches, and switches to lights. Soon they were invested, and by early afternoon, they had mastered the initiative and our tools. When they worked enthusiastically on their own, I reflected on how Richomme and I went from being an installer to an instructor in a few hours and have now been downgraded to quality control.
After being liberated from active duty, I became a reporter again. I saw the humility and hospitality of the villagers. We used crimpers, cables and semiconductors to invade their homes for half an hour or more. I played with the children and raced with them on the supply line along a winding path. I marveled at the close cohabitation between the villagers and the animals: in the tightly walled yard, the yard is full of mature passion fruit trees, and the women grind food among ducks, pigs, goats and other creatures. The guinea pigs scurry around my feet like a carpet moving on the dirt and eucalyptus floor.
A man welcomes us to visit his orchard and garden, his honey beehive, and his cactus colony, which produce the crimson dye commonly found in Andean textiles. I asked him how the villagers can spare so much time from their daily work to work and talk to us. The man explained that they are in the middle of the harvest, and that having us there is a "special opportunity".
When dusk finally came, I experienced the dark side of the savage standard light source—literally. When the villagers lighted a kerosene lamp larger than a torch, every small house with almost no windows was filled with smoke. Kerosene fumes contain particulates and carcinogenic gases, which are the main cause of eye and respiratory diseases in developing countries, especially among women who stay at home most of the day. When I watched a girl who might be three years old pull long black hair from her head and hang them in the flames, my own eyes were burning, and at the same time I thought about the danger of fire.
During the exhausting three days in Tahana, the closest we were to taking a bath was to dip our heads in a public sink. We endured the vicious attack from las pulgas-fleas would infest our tents and sleeping bags, We understand why the rooster and the dog start the symphony at 3 in the morning. But we also got a rare and noble stimulus that brought clean light to the village, including every house, school and two churches in it.
Interestingly, Luxtreks arrived in Bolivia through Harckhams through the growing relationship with South Asian places thousands of miles away. For many years, the couple have supported a teacher in a remote village of Nuolong in Nepal. In 1998, retired physical therapists Faith and Anthony, a retired physical therapist, are now selling painting new school buildings to tourists visiting the Canadian Rockies. During that trip, when the Hackhams asked the villagers what they needed most, their answer was light—electric light—which would free them from expensive and smoky kerosene lamps.
Harckhams found a technical solution an hour away from home. David Irvine-Halliday is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Calgary, Alta, Canada. He himself was in Nepal and was moved by the dark home and school just like the Harckhams and was looking for a solution. In the spring of 2000, Irvine-Halliday and his wife Jenny returned to Nepal with LED lights to illuminate several villages. This action later evolved to light up the World Foundation. Irvine-Halliday's idea is to create a local manufacturer of LED lighting systems to provide services to remote communities such as Nepal. For Harckhams, his LED lights provide a direct solution to Norung's kerosene habit. Later in the same year, Harckhams returned to Nanlong with $3,000 worth of photovoltaics, batteries and white LED lights, assembled in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, in compliance with Irvine-Halliday specifications. The couple worked with the villagers, lighting up Nanlong within a few days. The idea of Luxtreks is to continue and expand the plan. By the end of 2002, Harckhams had arranged Luxtreks' first trip. Destination: Bolivia.
Eight hikers signed up for the mission in Bolivia. The plan is to light up 120 houses in two villages: Kiranbaya, an hour’s drive from Sorata, and Pokobaya, directly above Tahana. Pulling down will test Harckhams. They once again counted on Irvine-Halliday's help with LED lights, but this time Professor Calgary could not help. Busy to debug the circuit of the second-generation lamp, he did not have time to arrange the lamp for Harckhams. So they improvise. Through friends-and friends of friends-Anthony found a local company willing to design similar circuits for free. He ordered the necessary components, and then he and Faith assembled their own lamps. Their system at the time also included two LED lights, as well as a switch box with a current-limiting circuit and batteries, which were charged once a week at a central charging station powered by a 75-watt solar panel.
After arriving in Bolivia, the Hackhams faced further logistical obstacles and a lot of anxiety. Will the lights work as expected? Do they have enough wires and tools? Can they manage hikers? Most importantly, their relationship with their original local contact, a couple living in La Paz, broke down during the trip. The couple contacted by Harckhams through Irvine-Halliday identified Pocobaya and Quirambaya as candidates for LED lighting and helped Harckhams arrange travel and local logistics. However, there were a series of misunderstandings and disagreements on the details of the project. First of all, Harckhams decided to improvise their own untested lamps. This deteriorated the relationship between the two couples and cut off a key communication channel between Harckhams and the villagers. Very little Spanish is spoken, let alone Aymara.
In the end, despite all the difficulties, the equipment arrived in time, the house was brightly lit, and the hikers were satisfied. Tom Malaher was one of the few people who performed the mission in Calgary, and he recalled that the trip was an eye-opening adventure. "This of course makes us aware of the differences in economic and technological levels that exist," he said. "You have heard of these things on the news, you will see very low quality TV images, but you really don't know what it means because the TV screen is too narrow."
Nevertheless, Faith and Anthony still lack one element: the kind of connection they experienced with the villagers in Nepal. "We got some help from the village, but not as much as we expected," Anthony recalled. "We don't really feel that we are reaching the community in exactly the same way as in Nepal." As we discovered in our return visit, this disconnect can have a profound impact.
As soon as we arrived in Pocobaya and Quirambaya, it was obvious that things were not quite right after two years of installation. Only about half of the lighting systems in the two villages are working; the rest are in a different state of disrepair. We found solar panels disconnected, charging stations burned, switch boxes could not be switched, lights with glued glass panels degummed, soot-filled LED circuits, and repaired, damaged or missing wires. This is a far cry from the statement on the Luxtreks website that the village “should be kept illuminated in the next few years”. In Pocobaya's school building, the LED lights were torn off, and a photo of a deceased friend was taken from the wall by the Harckhams. Faith said that she felt betrayed. To her shock, in her eyes, the villagers did not seem to take care of the system. "Anthony, I think we need to rethink what we are doing," she told her partner.
My own impression is that the technology is under-designed. For example, the wires are very thin and exposed to the elements inside and outside the farmer's mud house, which seems to be prone to failure. The glue for fixing the light panels seems insufficient, especially considering the need to clean them in a smoky home. The idea of a central battery charging station doesn't seem to work well—it has been in disrepair without an official caretaker.
We spent a whole day in Quirambaya and half a day in Pocobaya, doing our best to replace new lights, switch boxes and battery connectors. In order to encourage regular maintenance, Faith agreed to pay a monthly fee of US$6 to US$8 to a man in each village (in many areas where farmers’ annual income does not exceed US$400, this is not a small amount). Check the village system regularly and send reports to Lux. When Hackham and the villagers finalized these maintenance contracts, the tone of the negotiations made me feel uneasy. Poma acted as an interpreter, and Anthony and Faith made it clear that in their opinion, the villagers did not achieve their goals.
On the day we left the hillside villages around Sorata, roadblocks occasionally prevented traffic to La Paz. But as we drove, my thoughts remained in the Andean village. I am confused as to how Luxtreks' project produced such seemingly different results in places we visited. Is the excitement I experienced in Tahana real? Or will they have problems with their lights, like many people in Pocobaya and Quirambaya? In the end, can a few Canadians really make a difference in rural Bolivia?
Looking back a few months later, I think they can. Although far from perfect, the technology transfer that Harckhams is trying to achieve has been of great benefit to most villagers. In Pocobaya and Quirambaya, most owners of damaged systems are eager to see them repaired. Andrew Canessa, a sociologist and director of the Centre for Latin American Studies at the University of Essex in Colchester, England, has worked in Pocobaya for 15 years. He said that these lights were the last time he visited the village in 2003. Have been using it all the time.
Anthony Harckham demonstrated how to install solar panels on the roof. Photo: Peter Fairley
"In my opinion, this is a good example of how a little help can make a big difference," Canesa told me in an email. Canesa said that women seem to pay special attention to light, they spend a lot of time cooking in the dimly lit kitchen indoors, and students who want to do homework. Rural women affirmed Canesa's impression. A 65-year-old, bright-eyed grandmother in Tahana told me that the blue beam of LEDs is “not like electricity”—which means it’s not equal to the bright and warm lights of nearby villages connected to the grid—but LED lights It is a great improvement of kerosene lamps.
The close connection experienced by Luxtreks in Tahana and the strong participation of the villagers in the installation process indicate that these systems will be more valued there and that people there have a greater sense of "ownership" in their lights. Francis said: "Successful projects must start with the perceived needs of the intended recipients, and this need should be regarded as a priority by them, otherwise they will be unwilling to pay for it with their own money, volunteer work or time." Lethem, Development Specialist at Duke University International Development Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Like most engineering projects, Luxtrek's operations face problems and failures. Together with them, Harckhams learned that they must constantly rethink their initiative, and most importantly, human and technical factors are important to their success. During our trip, Faith proposed a better strategy for contacting the village: the initial contact will be through a pre-installation visit, and they hope to use this to evaluate and confirm the villagers’ commitment to the project. At the same time, Anthony is committed to developing a more powerful lighting system. The result was a complete redesign: Anthony packed LEDs, batteries and photovoltaic modules into a stand-alone lantern. The lantern can be charged in the sun and can be hung in it at night.
LED lights that consume only 1 watt can provide enough light to read, cook or work. Photo: Peter Fairley
Irvine-Halliday said he has "only admiration" for Harckhams and Luxtreks (his "affiliate" of the Light Up the World Foundation in Calgary), but he continues to advocate a different strategy: fast-start the development of the production and distribution of lamps In China, the rural poor are self-financed. He said that the cost of locally-made lighting systems is almost affordable for the rural poor, and the microfinance financing that has been proven in Bangladesh and other places and now spread across developing countries can provide the necessary funds. Before people in rural areas around the world can walk into shops to buy their own LED lights, I hope Luxtrekkers will move on.
Half a year later, my thoughts are still returning to our last afternoon on the slopes of Mount Yilampu. After our work in the three villages was completed, we gathered on the football field with the residents of Tahana, where they served us with a traditional communal meal. More than a dozen people dressed in their best suits, dressed in carefully woven serapes, played fascinating and seemingly endless melodies on drums and zampoñas and Andean panpipes. Soon, I will trade my cowboy baseball cap for a black fedora and bright twill fedora by a new friend of mine, 33-year-old Víctor Peralta (Víctor Peralta). At the same time, the women in our group wore traditional satin and cotton dresses. After a while, when we danced a striped dance in the field, and accelerated to the point of joy, I realized that the villagers may have as much impact on our lives as we have on their lives.
Peter Fairley writes articles on energy, technology and the environment in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. His article "The Unruly Power Grid" was published in the August issue of IEEE Spectrum.
Contributing editor Peter Fairley has been tracking energy technology and its impact on the environment globally for 20 years, drawing a map of engineering and policy innovations that transform renewable energy and electric vehicles into mainstream competitors. He is particularly interested in the redesign of power grids and electricity markets required to phase out dependence on fossil fuels.
Your weekly selection of wonderful robot videos
Video Friday is your weekly selection of wonderful robot videos, collected by IEEE Spectrum Robotics friends. We will also publish a weekly calendar of upcoming robotic events in the coming months; this is what we currently have (send us your events!):
If you have any suggestions for next week, please let us know and enjoy today’s video.
If you don't have to worry about taking off or landing, it will be much easier to make drones, and DARPA's Gremlins program has been making tangible progress towards aerial drone recovery.
It has been a little too long since we saw high-quality cats in Roomba videos.
NASA will send several robots to Venus in 2029! Not the kind with legs or wheels, but still so.
DJI's new Mavic 3 looks very impressive, especially the 46 minutes of battery life.
I don't understand what the people who prevent the movement of the killer robot are trying to tell me here, and the colors make my eyeballs scream.
[Stop the movement of killer robots]
No doorbell? There is nothing that certain Dynamixels and tongue drums cannot solve.
This is a bottle unscrambler. I don't know why it is called that, because the bottle doesn't look messy. But it is cracking them anyway.
To survive, superchargers and their equivalents need to become less exclusive
Lawrence Ulrich is an award-winning automotive writer and the former chief automotive critic for the New York Times and the Detroit Free Press.
Just like a car juice bar, today's fast charging stations for electric vehicles—including the Tesla Supercharger in the picture—are unique and exclusive roadside landmarks. Experts say that this situation seems destined to change.
In Elon Musk's perfect world—at least a perfect planet—every driver will switch from fossil fuels to electric vehicles. But even if his company's valuation exceeds the $1 trillion mark, Musk has seen a problem: The mass adoption of electric vehicles requires a real public network of fast chargers, not today's fragmented system. However, Tesla’s proprietary Supercharger network is designed for Tesla owners, not for people who buy electric Fords, Volkswagens, etc.
From the beginning of Tesla's pilot project in the Netherlands, this situation is about to change. The entire industry is facing the nature of charger interoperability: every car must be connected to every charger with zero hassle, just like an internal combustion engine car can be connected to most pumps. In addition, experts said that regardless of the source or speed of the electricity, electric vehicle owners must expect to pay less for charging than they pay for lead-free charging.
Tesla recently opened 10 super charging stations in the Netherlands to owners of other electric vehicles, which can be accessed through a new mobile app. Naturally, Tesla plans to charge higher electricity prices, and Tesla owners provide funds for the network after all. Prior to this, the company promised in July to expand the use of its global super charging network, and currently has 25,000 powerful super charging networks. For its own customers, Tesla sold in Europe has adopted the CCS plug standard instead of Tesla's proprietary connectors in the United States and elsewhere. Tesla also started selling CCS adapters in South Korea and promised to "soon" bring these adapters to the United States for approximately $250.
Some Tesla owners gritted their teeth about the idea of sharing their precious supercharger, especially if that means lining up behind Chevrolet. But experts say that Tesla has invested money to create a fast charging network, and now must find a way to make the network profitable without alienating Tesla owners. For the entire plug-in industry, this has always been a daunting challenge. Even if the charger is idle for a long time, the industry still has to pay high utility fees for DC on-demand power supply.
It is estimated that fast charging stations must operate at least 8 hours a day—with a utilization rate of more than 30%—to make a cent of profits. No one, not even Tesla, has ever been close.
The Energy Transition Show podcast host and former Carbon-Free Mobility Manager of the Rocky Mountain Institute Chris Nelder estimates that suppliers need to see DC fast charging stations running for at least 8 hours a day-utilization is over 30%-earning penny. No one, not even Tesla, has ever been close.
"Tesla's death will be that customers have to line up in front of their chargers," Nelder said. "But they need to find the best balance between not having to line up and still getting enough income, so as not to be stifled by utility costs and maintenance."
The physical plug interface is not the only automotive version of Beta and VHS. A report by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) outlines the main challenges in coordinating all aspects of the car juice bar: stations, networks, vehicles, and the grid itself. In the United States, the report states that approximately 1 million public or semi-public charging ports will be needed by 2030 to support nearly 19 million electric vehicles. Today, there are fewer than 100,000, many of which are restricted in access and use. The report called for the adoption of the Open Charging Point Protocol (OCPP)-more common in Europe and beginning to receive attention in the United States-to achieve this goal.
In my own extensive EV testing, I continued to be hindered or frustrated by apps, subscriptions, and connected credit cards from multiple automakers or suppliers (such as ChargePoint, Electrify America, and EVGo). This is similar to the need for a separate subscription and payment plan, depending on whether a person enters the Mobil, Shell or BP station. To make matters worse, sites that stopped service or were unable to communicate with the car I was driving performed a digital handshake through the plug cable. It is commendable that Tesla has never successfully connected to a super charging station in the United States or Europe. Although Tesla fans scoff at this point, they almost never admit that Musk’s equipment is easier because its current network must only be compatible with four cars: Model 3, S, Y, and X.
If the United States is to have 19 million electric vehicles in 2030, it needs 1 million public or semi-public charging ports. Today, there are fewer than 100,000-many are restricted in access and use.
Here, the report of the institute is about EV service providers (EVSP) and lack of interoperability:
California tried to solve a problem by requiring public chargers to provide credit card readers. Nelder says this brings another challenge, increasing the cost for manufacturers to integrate and maintain card readers, which often fail due to exposure to elements. Most suppliers also charge higher "convenience" rates to drivers who don't have a network subscription—sometimes even more than the price of gasoline—which undermines the energy efficiency advantages of electric vehicles. Once again, imagine that Mobil charges more per gallon for drivers who are not part of its ecosystem. In California, the average household electricity consumption is about 22 cents per kilowatt-hour, and Electrify America charges 31 cents per kilowatt-hour (plus $4 per month) for “Pass” members for DC fast charging; but guests and basic members per kilowatt At 43 cents, the premium was nearly 40%. After the 10-minute grace period after the completion of charging, users are required to pay a "idle fee" of 40 cents per kWh.
It remains to be seen what fees Tesla intends to charge drivers of rival brands. Of course, Musk is correct to charge some extra fees for Supercharger access, at least initially. But if Tesla tries to get other electric car owners to absorb, these drivers will avoid the supercharger, and Musk's goal of selling energy becomes more unstable. Either way, unpredictable pricing and decentralized networks are not conducive to the adoption of electric vehicles.
Ultimately, Nelder said, the answer is to completely cancel the application and subscription, and let each vehicle communicate directly with each network and site through a simple digital handshake.
"The future we need to achieve is plug-and-play, where each car has a unique ID and an account associated with it," Nelder said, just like a toll collector on a highway.
Neither Tesla nor its competitors have surpassed apps, but the convenience seems to be improving every model year. The FordPass charging network allows car owners (including Mustang Mach E and the long-awaited F-150 Lightning pickup next year) to roam access to 12,000 charging stations and 35,000 plugs, including from the Electrify America network. Ford touted a relaxing experience that would make "public chargers as common as some of the most popular pharmacy or coffee chains." The automaker also hopes to promote roaming through cooperation with other networks.
When I plugged the Mach-E and Volkswagen ID.4 into a 150 kW Electrify America device, when I visited the Target parking lot in suburban New Jersey, the station screen automatically recognized the car by model, started the charging session, and debited the associated credit card Payment. But communication with car models is not always smooth: in the glorious days when Tesla is offering Supercharger connections to competitors, these cars will need appropriate software to establish the connection. This also requires coding and other cooperation from Tesla, including the question of which company's customer-facing application will do the job.
In the United States, and to a lesser extent in Europe, the government has left all these issues to the private sector, with the foreseeable results being mixed or selfish. (President Bidens' newly passed 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill may provide modest help, of which 7.5 billion is used for electric car chargers). When they are competing with Tesla’s industry-leading networks, some of the US charging solutions come directly from the oil and internal combustion engine economy: Electrify America’s fast-growing network is through Volkswagen’s $2 billion settlement with the US and California over the diesel emissions cheating scandal. Funding. Greenlots has been acquired by Royal Dutch Shell and merged with NewMotion in Europe, renamed Shell Recharge Solutions. The renamed umbrella company promised to expand to 500,000 charging stations worldwide by 2025, compared to 60,000 today, including through roaming agreements with existing networks. Shell also announced its goal of becoming a global leader in electric vehicle replenishment.
By the way, Shell currently serves approximately 30 million gasoline customers every day at approximately 46,000 retail stations. In order to compete with all these pumps and pumps and eventually force them to dry up, electric suppliers had better hurry up. The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030, the number of plug-in vehicles in the world will increase from 10 million today to 125 million. President Biden’s executive order goal is that 50% of all new cars that year will be electric vehicles. However, if there is no large-scale introduction of chargers-especially chargers that can be shared and shared-such ambitious goals may be just a pipe dream.
Transform more than 55,000 substations into independent micro data centers to solve the most pressing power distribution, security, and cost challenges that plague the U.S. power grid. Learn how virtualization provides a total solution to modernize and expand the power grid, with the capacity, protection, and reliability needed to keep power flowing smoothly.