Author: Rob Dean

When people discuss driving from coast to coast in Australia they often say we’re driving the Nullarbor. Before the road was completely sealed in the mid 1970s it was at best a challenging experience, at worst a mighty test of patience for those who didn’t plan for tyre and suspension issues along the way. These days the road is fairly good, the biggest challenges are rapid temperature changes, the often relentless wind and the flies.

As a matter of reference the Nullarbor Plain is an area located between the towns of Norseman and Ceduna, these two towns are 1200kms apart by road although the true treeless part (that still has a random small tree along the way) is mostly between the West Australian border and the Nullarbor roadhouse in South Australia, for this exercise an across the Nullarbor drive is between Perth and Adelaide via the shortest route of 2724kms.

The first time I drove across the Nullarbor was in 1992, in the past 3 years we’ve driven it 3 times in an electric vehicle. It’s an interesting adventure charging from 3 phase outlets and answering questions from curious tourists, the journey is not difficult at all, it just takes planning and patience. Driving these long distance trips with charging downtime also provides plenty of opportunity to think of the possibilities of where to install DC chargers and what charging speeds would be best. The installation of equipment that reduce charging time from multiple hours down to 15-20 minutes is now essential, EV owners are no longer just the early adopters who enjoy a challenge, EVs are now being purchased by Australians that require the best possible experience from day one.

So where to place the chargers with regards to spacing? By good fortune this is fairly easy if all the locations get on board EV charging, the average distance between charge locations is 182kms with largest gap being 241kms on the Balladonia-Cocklebiddy leg a road that is reasonably flat and easy on driving range. Of the 14 most versatile charging locations only 4 are privately operated off grid sites, the remaining 10 are gazetted towns, the amount of electricity available at each site is a relevant but separate issue that you can read about here, chargers need to be placed where there are toilets, water and shelter.

There are two obvious exclusions from this list, one is the mid-sized coastal town of Ceduna, on that section of road Penong and Poochera have more useful spacing, no doubt Ceduna will get DC charging as some stage. The second location is Border Village 12kms from Eucla, despite being more active with tourists Border Village has a privately operated and at this stage very weak electricity supply compared to Eucla. I wouldn’t rule Border Village out as eventually competition will see both locations having DC chargers. You will note I have included both Mundrabilla RH and Eucla, which only has a gap of 65kms. Unfortunately this is only alternative without having a gap of at least 262kms, it’s also the section of road that has consistently strong winds.

How powerful would the Chargers need to be? From a marketing exercise 350kw would appear to be the first choice, drivers looking to switch from petrol to electric often still have the mindset that 5 minute refills are essential, in theory a 350kw charger could provide 182kms of range in 6 minutes, in reality very few drivers will need it. Personally I see 150kw chargers as being the better choice for at least a few years, 150kw would provide 182kms of range in approximately 15 minutes, to me that’s a far better use of equipment while barely adding much time to the overall trip.

To summarize: installing DC chargers across the Nullarbor is nowhere near the impossible task many believe it to be, it’s certainly a challenge but nothing like the challenge that has gone into building the roads and oil based fueling infrastructure already in place across this isolated part of Australia. Up until now it hasn’t been necessary as very few electric vehicle owners need to make the trip, but as electric transportation rapidly becomes mainstream in the same countries that build Australia’s car it’s now become a matter of urgency to change the mind sets and car buying habits of many Australians.

It often gets asked on social media forums and at electric vehicle displays why off grid EV charging is not being built. The answer is: it will be eventually, it’s not technology holding it up, nor lack of renewable energy available, it’s frequency although not in terms of electricity but in terms of traffic flow.

Many EV drivers are already charging at home from off grid electricity systems, this is cost effective because of two important points; firstly they’re sharing the power generation equipment with general household usage thus sharing the equipment cost; also they are only using around 20% of the vehicles battery per day, 50% at most, this means they can delay charging until excess electricity is available.

With home charging it really isn’t that difficult to install a suitable off grid electricity system without too much overbuild, for a commercial site on a country road it’s vastly different. The random nature of traffic flow makes sizing a suitable generation system without massively overbuilding very difficult. On an average day in 2022 a regional roadhouse may get 4 electric vehicles stop to charge, that is zero to one car some days and 10 cars on other days, add in long weekends and school holidays and the EV traffic flow could be far higher. It’s not too difficult to install enough chargers for the busiest day but having enough electricity production and storage to charge those EVs would require a generation and storage system that would spend the best part of a week completely under utilized, it’s near impossible to make a business case from that.

Here is a very rough example to show why: On the busiest day 16 EVs stop to charge over a 24 hour period, if each EV consumes an average of 45kWh including charging losses, to provide 720kWh would require a minimum of 180kw of solar panels with the smallest battery set up of approximately 600kWh, and there sits the first issue. Batteries are currently too expensive to be only partly used 5 or 6 days per week, solar is cheap but having such a large solar array that’s producing vast amounts of unused power for most of the week is a waste of resources.

• 1. Battery prices need to fall significantly: this is not as big an ask as it seems as off grid batteries don’t have to be Lithium based, off grid locations have no shortage of room, energy density is not important, the best battery is one that provides the best cost per kWh over its guaranteed lifetime in an often harsh environment.
• 2. One electricity generation system for everything: a shared off grid system is better value for money, but not only a shared system but a smart system where power consumption is carefully managed during busy time periods, water desalination and hot water systems can operate at times of low demand.
• 3. Charging cost: EV owners will openly say they have no problem paying 45 cents a kWh in country areas but make it 60 cents at peak times and 30 cents when excess power is available and charging habits will change, most Australian drivers are already accustomed to being fleeced by fuel companies on long weekends at least this way they have a chance at cheaper energy.
• 4. More electric vehicles need to be purchased in Australia: the bigger the flow of traffic in country areas the better the business case for building off grid charging facilities.

What is the short term solution?

A hybrid system of renewables and Diesel: as much as I dislike Diesel being used in passenger cars and pretend 4 wheel drives that never leave the suburbs it still has its place in country areas for another decade. Having a Diesel back up that covers the very busy days but only produces 10-15% of the overall electricity is a far better solution than the one Australia currently has. Most off grid roadhouses are powered close to 100% by fossil fuel (some have a few dozen solar panels) fueling up 99% of the vehicles that stop in with fossil fuels, a step in the right direction is better than no step at all.

The first option is to try and avoid using an extension cord, longer cords have a significant voltage drop when charging from single phase, on an overnight charge that could result in 15 to 20kms less range in the same charging time. This voltage drop also means unnecessary heat in the cable that could shorten it’s useful life. The other issue in using an extension cable is it’s highly likely to add another tripping hazard unless it’s used wisely. As much as possible avoid using a 25 metre cable to cover a less than 5 metre span.

Happy motoring.

If you’re a longer term Tesla follower cast your mind back to March 2016, Tesla were about to display the mass produced Model 3 for the first time and the small (by today’s standards) Tesla fan base were salivating at the thought of a reasonable cost electric vehicle with the style and potential performance of the Tesla Model S. Anyone who had been for a drive in a Tesla product were excited, Legacy auto were not, Tesla was just background noise while they continued building vehicles with 20th century technology. As far as Legacy auto was concerned Tesla was just a niche product purchased by fanatics, the customer base was small and would soon dry up. 48 hours after the Model 3 reveal Tesla had over 300,000 deposits for the model 3, a car many would not receive for over 3 years, that was the last time Legacy auto would underestimate Tesla.

Anything Tesla announce on battery day will gain the full attention of the worlds car makers and likely lead to massive investments in research and development in an attempt to keep up with Tesla, the winners out of this will be the worlds car buyers.

Tesla battery day could bring a battery with better energy density, a battery that will have a useful life of well over a million kilometres, possibly a battery that can be charged at a far faster rate than currently available. It could be none of the above and it still won’t matter, Tesla only need one breakthrough and in the eyes of the fence sitters waiting to buy an electric car a Tesla goes from almost as good as ICE to slightly better than an ICE in total cost of ownership, it doesn’t take much to tip the scales for good.

So what is the most likely announcement on battery day? Amongst many small advancements I think the important one will be faster battery production allowing more efficient use of the facilities and factory workers that will lead to lower costs per kWh of batteries. This reduction in cost may only be 15 to 20% but that’s enough to create the tipping point necessary to assign the internal combustion engine to history.

One of the best ways to progress electric vehicle charging is through local government, especially in regional areas, shires and councils are always looking to promote their green credentials but more so will listen intently when it’s pointed out that EVs can boost regional tourism.

So what is the best type of charging for shires and councils to install? Read on to get some ideas.

DC charging – obviously it would be preferable to have as many DC fast chargers as possible, it’s also obvious the total install cost makes this extremely difficult unless the charger is donated to the location or there’s a councillor or CEO who’s determined to see EVs progress no matter the cost, this has happened on occasions but is very rare, that’s where AC charging is a good foot in the door.
AC charging – the clear benefit of AC charging is the total installed cost per kW of charging power, to wire in a 3 phase plug would cost $500 at the most, a Tesla HPWC install cost is $1500 at the extreme end of the scale but generally $300 to $700 each, AC charging will provide up to 22kw of charging power to an early Tesla Model S or 11kw to a Model 3. Compared to a 50kw DC charger with a purchase price of $35,000 minimum and install costs between $5000 and $60,000, dependent on the existing electricity infrastructure, you can see the better value of an AC install. The not so known advantage of AC charging is the lack of red tape holding up the install, an electrician will attend the site, make a decision on the the available power supply and if it’s viable the AC charger is installed and operational within a week. DC chargers on the other hand incur a lot of red tape, once every bureaucrat has had their share of the pie the cost and install time frame has become less than reasonable, no doubt when service stations and fast food stores start installing DC chargers the red tape issue will reduce rapidly.
As much as we would all like to see a rapid roll out of DC chargers, promoting AC charging with shires and councils to get the conversation started is the best approach. Very often once a low cost AC charge point is installed and is getting regular use the possibility of a DC charger later in time gets discussed.

Rob Dean

There’s never a shortage of comments about batteries whenever renewable energy is a topic of discussion. One battery that always gets a mention is the Tesla mega battery in Hornsdale South Australia, it’s held up as a shining light of success and the question is then always asked “why don’t other Australian states  commission a mega battery?” Without doubt politics plays a part but more importantly just because the mega battery is a success in SA doesn’t mean it will suit all other states or territories of Australia.

To keep it simple I’ll put batteries into 4 different categories and how they can be useful for one State but not necessarily for another.

Mega Packs such as the Hornsdale battery – The politicians and media who called this a White Elephant back in 2017 have been proved incorrect more than most could ever imagine. The battery’s ability to respond instantly to electricity demand, buying in power at extremely low prices and selling back high is a continual winner for its owners. No doubt this could almost be replicated in some other states with similar electricity production profiles to SA. One thing to remember though is the Hornsdale battery can be likened to the only Taxi in town, add more Taxis and the rewards are less.

Community battery packs – At the time of writing Western Australia has 13 community battery packs averaging 460kwh capacity each. It would take approximately 400 community battery packs to equal the Hornsdale battery storage but that comparison is not really relevant as they’re performing slightly different tasks. Firstly the community batteries are soaking up local excess daytime solar energy then feeding it back into the grid at the busy dinner time period; secondly its a great marketing exercise from the State’s power providers. All those very visible community batteries are essentially a billboard, no doubt a few locals in each suburb will have the confidence to install their own home battery if the power providers are seen to be supporting the technology, from then on one or two home batteries in each street soon start a trend as prices fall.

Home batteries – For most West Australians these are seen as expensive, without doubt to make it cost effective the home has to be set up to make full use of a battery/solar combination. If your arithmetic still shows the return on investment is not sufficient then the value of having electricity available 24/7 when the grid fails is priceless.

The electric car battery – Although vehicle to grid (V2G) is being trialled in the ACT it’s not critical that this system is up and running immediately, in fact in Western Australia V2G will be far less useful than the Eastern states grid. The most pressing need for the Perth and South west grid is the ability to soak up excess daytime solar, the already high uptake of rooftop solar is increasing month on month. The State’s power grid generates power from Coal, Gas, multiple wind farms and rooftop solar, generation is cheap but matching varying demand with different generation profiles can be a costly exercise for the companies supplying the power. With smart power pricing in times of high solar generation and low consumer demand fleets of electricity vehicles are a great addition to the customer base.

In summary each Australian state will make use of each type of battery depending on their individual needs, for Western Australia the state owned grid operators need to seriously consider the benefits of electric vehicle batteries that are purchased by the vehicle owners but will have a positive impact on the power grid.