• BehindTheBarrier@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’d expect a “Ultra-tier” fast charging station to have internal batteries (or perhaps supercapacitors or something like that) which buffer up from the grid. Eg. when not in use and over-night. Probably won’t last much into a day even with that, but we may see smaller buildings connected to charging stations that hold internal batteries to deliver faster charging than the connected grid can deliver.

    As long as there is demand and profit to be made, it could happen. The biggest cost is of course the batteries, but if solid-state batteries turn into reality I think things might be more cost effective. Especially since fixed position batteries aren’t subject to the same contraints as car batteries. Don’t need to handle vibration, weight is not a big problem. Key goals are lifetime value, energy density + and (dis)charging rates.

    Cheaper electricity during night might not be a thing everywhere or in the future, but small savings by stocking up cheaper during nighttime, gives better margins.

    • TemporaryBoyfriend@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      This is what Superchargers are. The snag is that during busy weekends, the batteries eventually hit zero, and everyone is capped at 72kW, because that’s what the AC/DC transformer can provide.

      • Chocrates@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s just an engineering or planning problem. Really though it’s probably just not cost effective to have enough capacity to cover the super busy times.