- A California startup has installed an off-grid EV charging station on the historic Route 66.
- Located in Barstow, California, Coral Charge’s biggest station is powered completely by the sun.
- The station can recharge six EVs at the same time, with batteries built into the chargers to keep the lights on during the night.
A new fast-charging location has popped up on the historic Route 66 in California, and it’s powered completely by the sun. As discovered by the YouTuber Scott Explains, the Barstow EV charging station is operated by a startup called Coral Charge, which opened its first location in Needles last year.
Compared to the startup’s first effort, the new location in Barstow is much larger—three times larger, in fact—featuring roughly 600 solar panels and three DC fast chargers that can recharge up to six electric cars at once.
Manufactured by Turkey’s Imecar, the all-in-one dispensers have battery storage built in, with up to 140 kilowatt-hours of energy saved for when the sun doesn’t shine. When combining solar power and the output from the batteries, one dispenser can send up to 180 kilowatts to an EV, which is more than decent by modern standards.
Judging by the scale of the solar installation, the startup looks like it has built the station with more dispensers in mind, as there is plenty of space to install more chargers. For now, however, up to six EV drivers can enjoy fossil-free top-ups at this location, with both CCS1 and NACS plugs available.
Pricing is set at $0.50/kWh, plus a $1 session fee, which is less than the non-Tesla chargers in the area. There’s no smartphone app needed, as payments are handled through card readers. There are no amenities on the spot, but there are some hotels and fast-food restaurants nearby
Out in the Mojave Desert, places like this make a lot of sense, both for EV drivers and the charging network. The solar panels provide much-needed shade and eliminate the need for costly grid connections, while the built-in batteries keep things running during the night.
According to Coral Charge, it needs approximately eight weeks to install a new EV charging station—four weeks to design, two weeks to install, and two weeks to commission. That’s a far cry from the 50 weeks that are usually needed for a new grid-reliant charging station in California, where getting utility permits can take as much as 36 weeks.