Australia’s first electric truck show was held over two days last week, with one of the featured sessions being an hour-long Q&A with Heather Bone from Team Global Express and Alex Bowler from Jet Charge.
They provided some great insights into TGE’s new $44 million electric last-mile delivery centre, which the Premier recently launched in western Sydney, which includes a fleet of 60 all-electric last-mile delivery trucks, battery storage and rooftop solar, And some amazing savings on network costs.
The project, backed by $20 million from ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency), covered the cost of the trucks, 63 chargers, 1MWh batteries and a 400kW solar system at the warehouse.
“We have 400 kilowatts of solar installed and we have a one-megawatt battery. We play in the spot market with our energy, so the price on that site is usually down about two to five cents per kilowatt hour,” says Boone.
“If there’s a peak, we can run the battery so we’re basically off the grid and kicking the battery. Last week on Thursday, we saved $17,000 in one hour.
“Imagine doing that, imagine the operational impact every time we use that battery to try to arbitrage the market. Right now, that’s a fairly manual process to leverage it. But once we do that, we save a significant amount of money. I would say We actually don’t use these trucks anywhere near as much as we need to.
Jet Charge’s Alex Bowler provided some additional technical insights into the first Australian project.
“There are two charging areas. One at the top has 47 AC chargers, and then there are 16 high-powered Kemppower DC chargers in the other charging area on the other side of the site,” Bowler said.
“There’s a total of 800 kilowatts of charging power installed there. One of the challenges we faced during the construction process was trying to find a way to get all the power the trucks need from the site or from somewhere. So how do you do that from a clean slate?”
“The routes that we were fortunate to have on the project, on the site that TGE owns, are two really large transformers that don’t have a lot of operating capacity on them. So we’re able to basically pull each charging area from every transformer or subset of electrical distribution on the site and then run Power for charging.
Attendees at Australia’s first zero-emission trucking show, Truck Show
The conference – held at Cape Shank in southern Victoria, and hosted by the Heavy Vehicle Industry Group of Australia (HVIA) – attracted hundreds of attendees who heard from a number of speakers on topics ranging from battery electric trucks and truck charging infrastructure to government funding opportunities. As well as updates on policy trends.
Other speakers at the conference included Volvo Group Australia e-Mobility Solutions Director Tim Camilleri, Eurocold Revora EV Managing Director Nathan Gore-Brown, and HVIA Chief Advocacy Officer Dr Adele Lausberg.
It also heard from representatives of government agencies, including Susie Smith from the Climate Change Authority and Ian Porter who is Net Zero’s Senior Assistant Secretary for the Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development.
NewVolt plans to participate in Australia’s electric truck charging network
Another standout session during the conference came from NewVolt CEO Anthony Headlam, who presented the case for Australia’s electric truck charging network.
“When it comes to the transformation of the road freight sector, we believe Australia is different,” Headlam told attendees.
“Basically, a country’s zero-carbon growth rate requires two things: energy that can power trucks without carbon emissions and infrastructure that can deliver that green energy as cheaply and efficiently as possible wherever and whenever trucks need it.
Headlam argued that Australia had a unique comparative advantage thanks to its relatively simple, high-density shipping lanes as well as access to abundant cheap renewable energy resources.
“The whole world is on a journey to decarbonisation. Each jurisdiction is looking at the mix of technology that can help achieve that and how quickly we can get there. Our starting point for the same discussion is that Australia is different. We have fundamental comparative advantages that we should put in place,” Headlam said. in consedration”.
“Firstly, Australia has abundant renewable energy resources and I appreciate, in all the hype around the energy transition, that can seem like a cliche because we hear it so much. But we shouldn’t forget that because it’s true. Neither Europe nor the United States nor most countries Asia has the same renewable energy resources as we do, and we don’t have the land or large rooftops to harvest them.
“It definitely takes technology and engineering intelligence to get the benefits at the lowest cost, and that’s the hard part, the behavioral change and operational changes to improve it.
“Simply put, the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow. We operate in a different energy system, and if you want to capture the benefits of a different energy system for this sector, it will take some operational changes that accept that this is difficult.
“The second reason Australia is different is our road charging network. When you think about the scale of the infrastructure challenge in terms of access to heavy vehicle charging, the fact that Australians are choosing to live close together in south-east Queensland in greater Sydney and in greater Melbourne and a few Other places it is actually very useful.
“This means that electrification of corridors, intermodals (train freight centers) and industrial areas for the lowest pendants and the highest volume of 80 or 90% is very possible with the technology here now, and soon without it being at great cost.
“Again, this is really important and it’s not the same if we’re looking at a map of Europe or the United States. So the Newvolt Network was born out of that context, which is the reality of the advantage of renewable energy in Australia and the reality of the potential for a national truck charging network. And that’s what we want to do.”
Having successfully brought together the trucking industry, government representatives and clean transport experts, Truck Show
HVAI says it’s “extremely exhilarating” to see the transformation happening so quickly
At the conclusion of the two-day conference. Paid He sat down with HVIA CEO Todd Hacking to discuss feedback on the event and how the Australian trucking industry is currently positioned in terms of relocation.
“This is without a doubt the biggest and most difficult change in the industry in more than 120 years.” Hacking said Paid.
“So it would be good to plan it, it would be good to structure it and coordinate it. It’s also exhilarating to see it happen so quickly. It’s a melting pot of innovation, technology and commercial, and that’s really cool and exciting to see.”
“You can feel the buzz there, you can feel the energy, and it’s so cool to be involved.”
Daniel Bleakley is a clean technology researcher and advocate with a background in engineering and business. He has a strong interest in electric vehicles, renewable energy, manufacturing, and public policy.
