Electrify America just opened a new “large-format” EV charging station in downtown Santa Barbara, California, adding 20 DC fast chargers and the company’s largest public battery energy storage system to date.
The new site is at 36 West Carrillo Street on the former Greyhound bus depot property. All 20 chargers can deliver up to 350 kW, allowing compatible EVs to add up to 20 miles of range per minute under ideal conditions.
For now, all 20 chargers feature CCS connectors. Later this summer, Electrify America plans to swap some chargers to NACS connectors as part of its ongoing pilot program, giving more EV drivers direct access to charging without having to use an adapter.
The new Carrillo Street location is Electrify America’s second station in Santa Barbara. The company’s first local site is located at 3790 State Street.
Electrify America has paired the site with a 1.9-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS), its largest public deployment so far.
The battery stores electricity when demand is low or when there’s plenty of solar power, then releases that energy during busy charging periods. The idea is to boost charging capacity, reduce strain on the local grid, and better utilize renewable energy.
“By incorporating advanced storage technology, we’re able to bring Hyper-Fast charging to locations that have traditionally been difficult to serve, while making it easy for customers to integrate charging into their daily routines in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara,” said Rob Barrosa, Electrify America president and CEO.
It’s also the fourth large-format Electrify America station in California, joining Santa Monica, San Diego, and San Francisco. The company says these larger sites, which feature 20 or more chargers, are designed to help reduce wait times as EV adoption continues to grow.
Electrek’s Take
You’d think Santa Barbara, given its location as a popular beach destination for LA drivers, would have plenty of EV chargers. But it’s actually an underserved area given the number of EVs around, so this big charging station is a nice addition.
Electrify America installing a BESS at the charging site also makes it much more sustainable and stable, so that’s a big win.
If I’m in an urban area and have a choice between a smaller and a larger charging site, I’ll pick the larger hub because it reduces the risk of having to wait to charge.
Read more: Electrify America is now posting live charger status on Google Maps
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