On a charge: how do we power a net zero future?

By Amy Stokes, Head of e-Mobility:

It’s two months since I joined Volvo Trucks UK & Ireland and I am genuinely excited to be part of the journey we are on – with a target for half of our sales to transition to electric by 2030.

But I also recognise operators have a lot of questions about electromobility, not least around whether the energy system is ready for the huge demand for power which is going to be required to charge growing fleets of battery electric trucks – which we see as the answer for clean urban and regional distribution.

And it’s on this topic I wanted to share some insight. Before entering the automotive industry, I spent 12 years at E.ON, working on commercialising new energy technologies, including building a sustainable residential charging business for electric vehicles.

Customers are eager to know whether the move to battery electric trucks is simply shifting from tailpipe emissions in our towns and cities, to greater pollution from our fossil fuel power stations in more rural areas.

My answer, quite simply, is no – so long as you plan accordingly. And here’s why.

The push for green energy

Pretty much any business can buy ‘green energy’ for charging their electric trucks back at base – remembering of course that it comes through the same grid as fossil-generated electricity. The slight premium you pay for green energy goes into investment for more renewable energy systems, and your energy use is attributed to what’s currently going into the network from clean sources.

You can also be savvy around how and when you charge. The ideal scenario is to plug-in when renewable energy is plentiful and overall energy demand is low, so you contribute to maximising the use of renewable generation assets and reducing the amount of fossil fuel generation assets the national grid must switch on to meet demand.

In the most basic terms, demand usually peaks between 5pm and 8pm on weekday evenings – when we’re lighting our homes and cooking dinner. From 10pm onwards, as we start to go to bed, demand drops off significantly and is usually lowest in the early hours of the morning. Given that electric vehicles require a large amount of energy during charging, an operation which tops up batteries overnight, can support the balance on the grid by using energy when overall demand is low.

With a DC rapid charger, the charging time for one of our heavy-duty electric trucks is approximately two hours – but even with an AC charger, which takes around nine hours, a truck plugged in at 10pm is fully charged and ready for the road by 7am the next morning. Or earlier if the battery wasn’t completely empty.?Don’t forget too that the battery can be charged more quickly up to 80% capacity, in just the same way as a smartphone, because the charger slows down towards the end of the process to protect the battery cells.

Grid capacity

That’s all very good, you might say, but does the grid have the capacity to provide green energy on the scale that’s going to be required as more electric vehicles join fleets?

Major investments are now being made – and even more are urgently needed – in developing the supply of green energy. But the UK has already come a long way too*:

• In 2019, greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation were down 13% on 2018 levels, and 72% lower than 1990 levels (as the country has switched from coal to gas and renewable power, together with the continued contribution of nuclear).
• In April 2017, the UK experienced its first coal free day since the industrial revolution. And from April to June 2020, the total coal-free period lasted 67 days.
• The amount of renewable capacity connected to the grid has increased from 8GW in 2009 to 48GW at the end of June 2020, an increase of 500%.
• The share of low-carbon electricity generation rose to 54% in 2019, with renewables at a record 37%.

Yes, our energy system still needs to change dramatically by 2050 if we are to achieve net zero emissions. It’s going to be a huge process which means replacing – as far as it is possible to do so – all fossil fuels with clean energy technologies such as renewables, nuclear and hydrogen.

Experts predict that green energy is going to become the predominant form of energy in the UK, with the potential doubling of electricity demand and consequently a fourfold increase in low-carbon electricity generation. There’s no simple overnight fix and delivering this transition will require billions of pounds of investment in green energy infrastructure or new low-carbon technologies, and a major shift away from fossil fuels.

But these are steps we must take. HGVs are the biggest contributor to domestic transport emissions in the UK after cars.

It’s true that Euro-6 diesel trucks are significantly cleaner than previous generations of HGVs, and the industry has done a fantastic job to make such advances in cleaner diesel technologies. But the fact remains when you put even a Euro-6 diesel truck and an electric truck side-by-side, the total climate footprint during a lifecycle is nearly six times lower for the electric truck.

The right energy, for the right application

Our plan at Volvo it to continue to offer a range of different drivelines, allowing us to recommend the most suitable solution for each individual customer application and geographic location. We will supply a mix of increasingly fuel-efficient combustion engine trucks, biomethane-powered trucks and fully electric and fuel cell trucks – the latter for longer distances, and expected to enter the market in the second half of this decade.

To support the growth of battery electric trucks, which can be ordered now, we are stressing the need for governments to introduce incentives for the installation of more public charging stations with a high capacity and enough space for trucks.

Plus, we are supporting the drive for charging infrastructure too. Only recently, Volvo Group, Daimler Truck and the Traton Group signed a non-binding agreement to install and operate a high-performance public charging network for battery electric trucks across Europe. The joint aim being to initiate and accelerate the build-up of charging infrastructure to enhance customer confidence in climate-neutral transportation. It’s hugely exciting and will begin operations next year.

As a society we must make this happen if we are to significantly reduce our carbon emissions, as well as deliver on the desire for better air quality and less noise, especially in large urban areas.

The time for change is upon us.

Discover more about our battery electric truck range, and how we will support operators with making the switch: https://www.volvotrucks.co.uk/en-gb/trucks/alternative-fuels/electric-trucks.html

* Energy White Paper, December 2020 (published by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-white-paper-powering-our-net-zero-future