Telephone booths in Spain could get a green makeover as EV charging stations
Now that cell phones are so ubiquitous all around the developed world, there seems to be little need for all those public telephone booths dotting the landscape. This being the case, there are plans in place in Spain that could see a large number of these unused telephone booths converted into electric car recharging stations.The Spanish government's plan would see 546 new electric car charging stations built in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville using old telephone booths. Its thought that these charge points could service 2,000 new electric vehicles. Considering that most of these old booths are located in high traffic areas and are situated close to the curb, the idea seems to have merit.
Spain has set aside $2.2 million to invest in this green transportation project and plans to allow EV owners to charge their cars and park for free and enjoy a 75 percent reduction in taxes.
[Source: Green Car Advisor]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yanquetino 11:58AM (9/11/2009)
¡Una idea excelente! ¡Bien hecho!
For the life of me, I can't understand why the EV shakers-and-movers in this country are obsessed with charging stations with J1772 plugs and cables. The Europeans, Australians, and New Zealanders are on the right track here: just provide a standard 240V receptacle, and let the EV driver provide the cable with a standard plug. After all, if Winnebago owners can plug in at RV parks with frying themselves, why can't EV drivers?
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Doug 4:31PM (9/11/2009)
Well it makes sense to have a bit of a smarter plug enabling 2 way communication for setting the proper current limits and possibly for V2G later. While they're at it the plug can have some better safety, security (e.g. locking), ergonomic features. The time for setting that standard is now while there are few EVs out there.
But I really wish they'd get on with it. The EU Mennekes connector looks pretty good and is compatible with 3 phase. I wish we'd just adopt that same connector in the US as well. The holdup seems to have more to do with politics than technical issues.
Yanquetino 5:43PM (9/11/2009)
Yes, I can see anticipating V2G possibilities, although it seems to me that this is more a task for the onboard charger and its software than for the plug, cable, and receptacle. Besides, no matter what "standard" connectors emerge, I am willing to bet that most EV drivers will nonetheless wire together their own alternative charging kits...
...like Darell Dickey's...
http://evnut.com/charger_adapters.htm
...or Martin Eberhard's...
http://www.evcomponents.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=40
...so that they can charge their EVs from any plug anywhere in the country.
As for safety, I opine that it is a non-issue. For example, I managed to compile and tally some stats for Australia/New Zealand and compare them with those for the U.S. Over a 10-year period (1992-2001), the average number killed by electrocution per million citizens was:
1.95 - Australia/New Zealand
1.87 - United States
I am no statistician, but it seems to me that the .08 (!) difference per million is insignificant. Apparently those "down under" manage to plug and unplug 240V/50Hz with little more risk than we face in this country with 120V/60Hz.
So, if Australians/New Zealanders --like Europeans-- can use "standard" 240V plugs and receptacles to charge EVs without frying themselves, why can't we in this country? The above data do not support the touted "safety" concern.
roger 4:56AM (9/14/2009)
I think the best solution is to have both - a simple plug for filling up wherever, and a big plug for juicing up at a fast charging station. The Zero-S supermoto http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s-specs.php has the charger built in, and a simple extension cord plug, so you can plug in at home, at work, at your mom's house, anywhere there is electricity. The battery is 4kWh, whereas a car would likely have more than 20kWh.
A normal EU wall socket is limited to 220V, 15A, giving a maximum output of 3.3kW. Therefore theoretically you can fill 4kWh in about 1.2 hours with a 220V 15A wall plug, but currently the Zero-S charger is limited to 1kW, so it takes 4 hours. If you had a car with 20kWh, it would take about 6 hours at 3.3kW - fine for overnight, but you still might like a fast charge at times, hence a recepticle for a bigger plug makes sense.
As to hydrogen, it's a whole lot easier to find electricity - even easier than gasoline at times. When I get home, I just plug in my moto. No muss, no fuss (and no gasoline or diesel stink in the garage either).
gorr 1:07PM (9/11/2009)
It cost more to build a car electric charging infrastructure then a hydrogen infrastructure.
With a charging infrastructure car are park and disable for hours and hours consuming a lot of electricity in each outlet and stocking a charge good for 30-70 miles. With an hydrogen infrastructure cars refuel in 3 minutes for 20 cents with a refuel good for 500 miles or more and we can refuel tractor-trailer trucks, electric power stations, boats, airplanes, etc. It take one electric charger for every battery car but it take one hydrogen outlet for every 400 cars. It's a 1 to 1000 difference on the costs comparaison. Even more if honda or another ' seller ' fit a godham water electrolyzer inside the car, then no need for an gaseous hydrogen infrastructure that nobody want to build anyway.
Car manufacturers have put on in deep misery when they discovered that they can build and commercialize a car powered by water but didn't take the decision of putting that into their customer hands and now they realize that these same consumers are still paying and breathing petrol for no reasons, so they turn their back on consumer and accept big-oil money and subsidies from the state to even push farther down their consumers, till they plant to kill them anyway to have the piece of mind when they will spend their secret banking accounts in protected fiscal paradise.
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Alan 4:18PM (9/11/2009)
Gorr your posts are mainly nonsense, I don't normally even bother reading the, just vote them -1 and move on, but your first sentance happened to catch my eye. Why isn't the hydrogen infrastructure expanding in a big way now? Why aren't the FCEV's on manufacturers website for sale in the next few years? I know Toyota and Honda 'are' releasing Fuel Cell vehicles in 2015 but by then unless things go horribly wrong there will be quite a few EV's available to *BUY*
The 'plan' all along was for hydrogen, I'm convinced of that, but now all the 'real' news seems to be about EVs and EV charging stations I can only guess that the credit crunch has convinced the powers that be in the West that maybe we can afford to transition to EVs which even with the known limitations are at least *the most efficient* way to propel a car, but the sad realisation is we probably can't afford to transition to hydrogen.
meg 2:56PM (9/11/2009)
Seems like a great idea to me. Then you can have all these little towns that had one phone all now have one charging station - and EVs can take road trips well beyond the big cities without too much worry.
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Mark Kiernan 4:59PM (9/11/2009)
Almost every town (even small villages) have at least one telephone booth, so converting it would be a great idea, you already have electricity there, just need some sort of parking space. Would have to be something like 440v so that you could recharge quickly to make space for another person.
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smartcomputing 5:03PM (9/11/2009)
Gorr, you are a dis-service to the hydrogen community. Please refrain from saying things that are completely wrong andd not true. If you don't have anything to say, hold your tongue instead of giving the community a bad name.
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gorr 11:02AM (9/16/2009)
You will have to learn the language of biology peoples and learn to conceive, deal and put on the market things made of metal, plastics, paint, glass, forms, mecanisms called a green , non-polluting, no fuel costs car putted on sale for cash near where i live.
The hydrogen community was specialists creating anything well before biology but now are defending themselfs with stupid toxic spills like car exhausts, petroleum extracting anf refining and distribution, tax on everythings that move, has moved, will move, nuclear commercializations and productions and engineering, forest deforestration, pills to children, medical experimentations, drugs conceptions and commercialization, etc. For shorts, just humans experimentation instead of human life. They even didn't put 1 hydrogen car for sale, even if it cost as low as 1 000$, LOL.
roger 4:36AM (9/14/2009)
Odd, I already have my electric infrastructure - it's called three 220 plugs in my garage in Spain. I currently charge 2 electric bikes and my Zero-X. Funny thing - everyone complains about electric range, but the thing is, every morning my vehicles are completely full. My car is usually less than half full, often only a quarter. What is my range then? Of course, then I can find, stop at the gas station, breath some fumes, stand in line and be treated by an insolent clerk so I can continue on, so I suppose my range is "unlimited".
Personally, back in the US, I'll keep my old gas car for long trips and have a pure electric for around town. Usually I know where I'm going and don't suddenly take off for a trip 300 miles away, so an expensive plug-in hybrid doesn't make sense to me.
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roger 4:39AM (9/14/2009)
Forgot to mention - what kind of power can you get from 220V, 15Amps (seems to be the max here in spain) - let's see - 220(Vrms) * 15A = 3.3kW. So, in an hour you could get 3.3kWh, not too much, but probably enough to get home.
On another note, I was talking to a guy in Barcelona who wants a Zero-S street bike, but lives in an apartment. Unless the bike can fit in the elevator, he's out of luck unless the city puts in some plugs outside, or he can hang a long extension cord out of the window?
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