Minister says more EV charging points may be in the post*
*(Lamp posts on public streets, that is)
THE Government has promised to explore more innovative ways to meet its electric car charging targets – including plans to power vehicles from street lamp posts.
It comes as new figures provided by Transport Minister and Green leader Eamon Ryan show the Coalition is facing a race against time to meet its e-charging infrastructure targets.
Minister Ryan’s department confirmed there are now 2,230 public electric vehicle (EV) charge points across the country. This does not include a further 1,202 ‘classified’ or ‘restricted’ connectors currently located in private businesses such as hotels and car dealerships.
However, this is only about a tenth of the number of estimated public chargers that will be needed to power the one million e-vehicles the Government has targeted to have on our roads by the end of the decade.
The Department of Transport said it will require ‘214,000KW (kilowatts) in charging capacity’ to power e-vehicles by 2025, rising to 712,000KW by 2030.
‘The Government has allocated €100m’
It said this will be needed to power ‘between 3,200 and 6,200 charge points nationally’ by 2025, adding: ‘For 2030 this number will increase by 300%’.
Confirming the current number of public e-chargers, the department said: ‘As of July 2023, there were approximately 2,320 connectors (or 2,100 charge points that can be used simultaneously) around the country. This is up from 1,700 in September 2022.’
The department said the Government has allocated €100m ‘to the development of a best-in-class EV charging network by 2025’.
And it said its Zero Emissions Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) unit is ‘currently engaging with local authorities who are developing EV Strategies to identify locations where on street residential neighbourhood charging is required’.
As the Government struggles to meet its e-charge targets, Green TD Patrick Costello has urged his party leader to follow the example of innovative schemes in London, Berlin and Valencia, where street lamp posts are being used as EV power points.
In response to parliamentary queries on the matter from his Dublin South Central TD, Minister Ryan acknowledged: ‘There is need for a seamless public charging network that will provide for situations or instances where home charging is not possible, such as on-street and residential charging, destination charging and workplace charging.
‘A range of new charging infrastructure schemes are being developed which will help provide another critical link in the overall network for public charging.
‘A new Residential Neighbourhood Charging Scheme will be launched by ZEVI for local authorities to provide EV charging for residents without access off street parking. This will be designed to mimic home charging and will incentivise off-peak charging in a
location convenient to the resident’s home.’
The Green Party leader also said his department is ‘actively engaged in supporting the local authorities, who manage the local lighting lamp post infrastructure, in the development of EV infrastructure strategies’.
He added: ‘The local authority strategies will look at destination and local neighbourhood solutions
that are appropriate to their specific locations to meet the projected publicly accessible charging needs, and these plans may well include lamp post charging where suitable, among a range of possible solutions.’
Anticipating potential push back from local authorities to his proposal, Mr Costello warned: ‘There is an element of the silo mentality involved where councils say, “well, it’s not our job”, but everyone has to work together to make it their job.’
He said that, when it comes to finding e-charging solutions, Ireland ‘should look to the example of countries like Germany who do it and it works’.
The Green TD told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘We need to respond to the current challenges with creativity mixed with practicality; a bit of common sense.
‘I have loads of constituents in terraced houses who cannot source charge points. One of the big blocks to going electric is where do you charge it. Well, in the case of lamp posts, the infrastructure is there, and it is pretty obvious.’
‘With lamp posts, the infrastructure is there’