WattEV To Break Ground On Solar Charging Station For Heavy-Duty Trucks

Published

3 years ago

September 16, 2021

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California-based WattEV will begin construction next month on that state’s first solar-powered charging station exclusively for heavy-duty trucks up to 80,000 lb GVWR. Located in Bakersfield, it will feature a 5 MW solar array plus battery storage using second-life battery packs. On its website, the company says, “WattEV is speeding up the transition of US trucking transport into zero emission faster than anyone could expect. We use a combination of business and technology innovation to create infrastructure and data driven workflow that provide truckers and fleet operators the lowest total cost of ownership. Our goal is to get 12,000 HD electric transport trucks on the road in California by the end of 2030, exceeding existing forecasts.”

The Bakersfield installation will take 2 years to build. Initially, it will have 12 truck chargers with a total capacity of 4 MW and will cost $10 million to build, with $5 million of that provided by a grant from the California Energy Commission. Other participants in the project include the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, the Central California Asthma Collaborative, Greenlots, and Power Electronics, among others.

Courtesy of WattEV

Eventually, the 110 acre site will cost $30 million to complete and will feature 40 chargers, 25 MW of solar plus storage, and 40 MW of charging capacity. It will offer drivers a choice of 250 kW, 350 kW, and 1 MW chargers. The 1 MW units will deliver 320 miles of range to a Class 8 tractor in 30 minutes, according to PV Magazine.

The Bakersfield site is located just 1 mile from an Amazon fulfillment center and 12 miles from a Walmart distribution center. In addition to the Bakersfield project, WattEV reported it is in the planning stages for similar projects in San Bernardino and Gardena in Southern California. Both will serve the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, where goods coming into the country from overseas are transported to warehouses and distribution centers nearby.

Transportation As A Service

WattEV is about much more than charging stations. Its core business is operating a transportation as a service (TaaS) network of heavy-duty trucks, some of which it will own and some of which it will manage for other companies. It has ordered 50 Tesla Semis and 6 VNR Electric Class 8 trucks from Volvo. The VNR has a 264 kWh lithium-ion battery, a range of 150 miles, and the ability to charge to 80% capacity in 70 minutes. The company says it wants to have 12,000 trucks under management by 2030 and a system-wide charging capacity of 1 GW. For more on WattEV’s TaaS model, watch the video below.

[embedded content]

WattEV has signed its first electric truck “transportation as a service” contract with TTSI for 16 trucks that will haul loads from California ports to regional destinations. TTSI will use WattEV’s trucks, charging infrastructure, and EV management services.

Moving goods from ports to end users is usually a job for big, snorting diesel-powered trucks. WattEV is taking the lead in transitioning those heavy trucks to pollution-free electric models in southern California and harnessing sunlight to keep them charged up and ready to work. That’s good news for the Earth. The switch to electric trucks can’t happen fast enough, particularly for those who live and work along transportation corridors in the Golden State.

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Environment

Oil giant Saudi Aramco posts 15% drop in third-quarter profit but maintains dividend

Published

5 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Oil giant Saudi Aramco posts 15% drop in third-quarter profit but maintains dividend

Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal

Ahmed Jadallah | Reuters

Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a 15.4% drop in net profit in the third-quarter on the back of “lower crude oil prices and weakening refining margins,” but maintained a 31.05 billion dividend.

The company reported net income of $27.56 billion in the July-September period, topping a company-provided estimate of $26.9 billion. The print is also a 5% drop from the previous quarter, which came in at $29.1 billion, as lower global oil prices, weaker demand and prolonged OPEC+ production cuts led by Saudi Arabia continue to impact crude prices.

The average selling price of oil for the second quarter of 2024 stood at $85 per barrel, but dropped to $78.7 per barrel during the third quarter, according to Saudi-based bank Al Rajhi capital, as non-OPEC supply volumes grew.

The oil firm said its year-on-year decline was partly offset by a “reduction in selling, administrative and general expenses primarily driven by a gain from derivative instruments, and a decrease in production royalties largely reflecting lower crude oil prices and a lower average effective royalty rate compared to the same quarter last year.”

Aramco’s dividend includes a base payout of $20.3 billion and an atypical performance-linked one of $10.8 billion. The Saudi government and the kingdom’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, are the main beneficiaries of the dividend, holding stakes of roughly 81.5% and 16% in the company.

The remaining shareholding trades freely on Saudi Arabia’s Tadāwul stock exchange, with the company having finalized its second public share offering back in June.

Aramco’s earnings before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) came in at $51.45 billion in the third quarter, down 17% year-on-year. Aramco’s capital expenditure guidance was brought up 20% to $13.23 billion.

The company was trading at 27.45 riyals following the announcement, down 0.18% on the previous day.

The earnings align with a broader trend across oil majors, whose third-quarter profits have also suffered from declines in crude prices and refining margins. Aramco said it achieved average realized crude price of $79.3 per barrel in the third quarter, compared with $89.3 per barrel in the same period of last year.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter who produces roughly 9 million barrels per day of crude at present, serves as the de facto leader of the OPEC+ oil producers’ alliance, a subset of whom agreed over the weekend to delay a planned December output hike by one month.

OPEC chief says delayed December output hike is 'nothing unusual'

“Aramco delivered robust net income and generated strong free cash flow during the third quarter, despite a lower oil price environment,” CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement. “We also progressed our upstream developments, strengthened our downstream value chain, and advanced our new energies program as we continue to invest through cycles.”

The revenues will be a boon to the Saudi economy, which is currently undergoing a diversification process under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s legacy Vision 2030 scheme spanning a slew of high-cost infrastructure “gigaprojects.”

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance cut the kingdom’s growth forecast to 0.8% in 2024, in a steep decline from a previous projection of 4.4%, and raised the outlook for the national budgetary shortfall to roughly 2.9% of GDP, from a prior indication of 1.9%.

Environment

Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

Published

10 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!

Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.

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Environment

This ‘supercharger on wheels’ brings fast charging to you [update]

Published

12 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]

Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”

November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).

It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.

Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”

May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.

“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.

The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)

Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)

Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.

The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.

To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.

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