Cornwall Council and e-bike rental company Beryl have secured funding for a “groundbreaking” solar e-bike charging project.
Six hubs, strategically located across the province, will use rubber solar panels to charge Beryl’s e-bikes, reducing the number of battery changes Beryl staff have to make every day. Installation of the first hub will begin soon and all six hubs are expected to be completed by March 2025.
Previous analysis of Britain has identified several areas that generate enough solar energy to power e-transport charging points. Beryl notes that many of these areas are already host to Beryl’s e-bike rental systems, increasing the exciting potential of a future pilot rollout of this solar technology across the country.
Beryl believes that the increased efficiency and reduction in operational costs brought about by this project could deliver up to 50,000 additional e-bike trips across Cornwall every year.
Patrick Donnelly, Beryl’s head of policy, said: “We are very excited about delivering what could be a game-changing project for the sector, providing a blueprint for delivering successful e-share programs in less densely populated rural areas.
“Without the need to connect to the electricity grid, the hubs will also reduce the scheme’s carbon footprint and operational costs, making it more feasible to expand into new areas and maximize the scheme’s potential.”
Funding has been awarded under the Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrators programme, funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) and Innovate UK. This funding program aims to support solutions that can both reduce carbon emissions from local transport and increase collaboration between businesses and local authorities, with £1 million of the available pot allocated specifically to projects that decarbonise rural areas want to facilitate.
Connor Donnithorne, Cornwall Council Cabinet’s transport portfolio holder, added: “We want to support residents to make more sustainable choices about the way they travel. This funding will not only increase the availability of e-bikes in areas such as Falmouth, Penryn and Newquay, where we know there is high demand, but also support our work to reduce Cornwall’s carbon emissions.”
The development of PV systems could stimulate solar energy innovation
Beryl’s project will use rubber-coated solar panels installed on the street to power e-bike charging points, but new developments in solar cell technology could make the next generation of solar e-mobility projects much more efficient and take up less space.
As recently reported by Solar energy portal, Scientists from the University of Oxford recently unveiled their latest breakthrough in solar PV technology, an ultra-thin material that can be applied to “almost any building”. The new thin-film perovskite material can deliver a conversion efficiency of up to 27%, while being almost 150 times thinner than current silicon wafers.
A version of this article was first published on our sister site Current±. You can read the extended version here.
