Pivot Power has revealed more details on its plans to build an electric vehicle (EV) charging “superhub” with a 50MW battery on the outskirts of Southampton.
The facility will be the first in a £1.6 billion network of 45 charging stations and batteries which the company announced in May.
Test Valley Borough Council has already granted the firm planning permission to install a containerised storage system at the Nursling substation near junction 3 of the M27.
The battery will have storage capacity of 50MWh and cost up to £25 million. Construction is expected to begin in March and be completed three months later in July 2019.
Pivot Power intends to submit a separate planning application for the charging station itself, which will be located at a nearby site that is yet to be identified.
The superhub will offer rapid charging for as many as 100 cars at a time and will be capable of supporting the fastest chargers currently available. The company said it is working with local partners to explore the possibility of using the facility to provide charging for commercial fleets such as buses, taxis and vans.
Pivot Power chief operating officer Matthew Boulton, said: “We want to support councils working to clean up air pollution, promote low-carbon policies and develop a sustainable economy with better services for local people.
“Close collaboration will ensure that we build the right infrastructure in the right place to make it easy for drivers, businesses and public services to switch to electric vehicles.”
The project will act as a template for the rest of Pivot Power’s charging network. The superhubs will all be built close to towns and major roads and fed by 50MW batteries connected directly to the high-voltage transmission network at nearby National Grid substations.
The company said this model will minimise network costs and offer economies of scale – giving it a competitive advantage over rivals installing batteries and chargers separately or connecting them to the low-voltage distribution network.
It is aiming to install batteries at the first ten locations within 18 months and all 45 over the next five years.