DUNDEE City Council is introducing innovative ‘industry first’ rainwater harvesting technology as part of a new public EV charging hub, which is set to open in early April.
In what has been described as a first for the EV charging industry, the council has partnered with Swarco and Bluewater to install a state-of-the-art water filtration system providing drivers with the purest of drinking water. Rain that falls on the solar canopy is captured and sent through a filtration system before reaching dispensing units on either side of the charging hub.
Other innovations
The hub will also include two 360kWh battery storage units – the batteries contained within are actually old EV car batteries that have come to the end of their first life. This ‘second life battery storage’ solution is helping further minimise the environmental impact of charging an electric vehicle at the site. The storage units can also help minimise the cost to drivers by releasing the stored solar energy when electricity prices peak.
This will be Dundee’s fourth public EV charging hub. The Scottish city has already established itself as a leader in sustainable EV infrastructure with 3.9 public EV charge points per square mile and an electric fleet that has already saved more than 1,840 tonnes of CO2.
