Bangchak stations to install EV chargers, solar panels

By THE NATION

 

 

Somchai Techavanich, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing at Bangchak Corporation Plc (BCP) recently announced that the company is planning to install EV chargers at its petrol stations under an MoU for clean energy business development signed with the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA).

 

“Currently PEA is surveying the sites of Bangchak’s petrol stations that are suitable for installing EV chargers,” he said. “We will be using the fast charge model that requires about 20 minutes of charging time, and are planning to install charging stations at intervals of 100 km along the major highways.”

 

Somchai further added that PEA will be responsible for the installation cost and service fee charge, while BCP provides the spaces for charging, such as in front of Inthanin Coffee Shop.

 

“The installation should start in the first quarter of 2020 in selected stations to test the system, and will expand to 62 stations nationwide within the first year,” he said. “At present Bangchak has a few charging stations of its own, but they are not very popular since most EV users prefer to charge at home.”

 

Furthermore, in 2020 Bangchak is planning to install solar rooftops on its patrol stations and retail shops managed by Bangchak Retail Co Ltd as part of the company’s clean energy business development initiative.

 

The project will be financed by BCPG Pcl, a subsidiary of BCP. “In the early phase we will install solar rooftops at 220 gas stations under our management, and then expand to the stations managed by dealers and business partners,” he added. “The solar rooftop will help reduce electricity cost of each station by around 10-15 per cent.”

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30380012

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-12-31

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It sounds encouraging. I do hope this is a serious undertaking, rather than an attempt at 'corporate social responsibility' just to gain publicity.

In my opinion the more motorists who see something like this, the better.

Now if only the Thailand government would start to at least remove the crippling import tax on EV vehicles. One could only hope the Thai government would actually create some tax incentives to purchase an EV vehicle. 

 

If they are so worried about air quality in Bangkok and other regions, EV vehicles would be a great start. Shanghai has almost all electric powered motorcycles/scooters, if only other countries would follow suit.

And the solar Panels will do what?.........They will help EV drivers feel all green and fuzzy....

20 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

And the solar Panels will do what?.........They will help EV drivers feel all green and fuzzy....

Happy new year - see you appear to be off to another good trolling start, given the plastic bag topic you enjoyed:

 

 

 

Edited January 1, 20206 yr by bluesofa
misprit

Hope their Spar shops are better than the ones in Blitain .. 

 

38 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

And the solar Panels will do what?.........They will help EV drivers feel all green and fuzzy....

Somebody got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, eh?

As it's solar power, it's renewable energy and a step in the right direction. 

Just now, djayz said:

Somebody got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, eh?

As it's solar power, it's renewable energy and a step in the right direction. 

Yea but solar panels at a gas station will not even supply one minute of power in a day for a power hungry fast charger...

17 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

Yea but solar panels at a gas station will not even supply one minute of power in a day for a power hungry fast charger...

I have neither the time nor the patience to do the research, but, I can imagine that solar panelS can supply more than "one minute" of power a day. 

Like I stated in my original post, it's a step in the right direction. I'm a strong believer in the concept that  from small acorns great oak trees grow. If we don't try, we'll never know. 

Where's all the negativity coming from? Yhe technology is already there, the sun shines practically 365 days a year here, let's harness some of that energy! I've never understood why countries with this much sun don't use solar power more. 

1 hour ago, djayz said:

Somebody got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, eh?

As it's solar power, it's renewable energy and a step in the right direction. 

 

quite considerable steps have already been made in the right direction...

 

In the third quarter of 2019, 40% of UK electricity generation came from renewables, including 20% from wind, 12% from biomass and 6% from solar.

 

but it needs the government to have a coherent policy, strategy, support, subsidy and investment, but most of all the will to go renewable.

 

given the annual hours of sunshine in thailand it's stunning there has been little obvious investment in solar power

28 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

quite considerable steps have already been made in the right direction...

 

In the third quarter of 2019, 40% of UK electricity generation came from renewables, including 20% from wind, 12% from biomass and 6% from solar.

 

but it needs the government to have a coherent policy, strategy, support, subsidy and investment, but most of all the will to go renewable.

 

given the annual hours of sunshine in thailand it's stunning there has been little obvious investment in solar power

Read just a few hours ago, that the UK in 2019 for the first time generated more energy from renewables than from non-renewables. Is this the new benchmark? I hope so. ????

4 hours ago, Silurian said:

Now if only the Thailand government would start to at least remove the crippling import tax on EV vehicles. One could only hope the Thai government would actually create some tax incentives to purchase an EV vehicle. 

 

If they are so worried about air quality in Bangkok and other regions, EV vehicles would be a great start. Shanghai has almost all electric powered motorcycles/scooters, if only other countries would follow suit.

 

100% agree. 

 

Thai government are lagging way behind the world on EV and solar power.

 

If they were even mildly interested, they would not only remove the tariffs on EV, but they would provide incentives to buy EV.

 

BCP and Somchai may be ahead of the curve but their business model is reliant on the Thai Government being responsible...and that's just dumb. They cannot shift an industry alone.

 

Same with solar panels and all the invertors, batteries and selling excess electricity back to the grid. Provide tax free imports and pay subsidies for solar - use your own family companies to sell and install if that makes you feel better Cha Cha, but do something...

 

Fail.

 

 

solar panels? Meaning its elec off the grid so apart from initial costs it should be basically free or will every house offer a plug in the future for stiff competition?

46 minutes ago, unamazedloso said:

solar panels? Meaning its elec off the grid so apart from initial costs it should be basically free or will every house offer a plug in the future for stiff competition?

 

Not quite.

 

The solar panels are expensive, and the better ones are from Germany. Chines ones have been pretty crappy to date with a limited life.

 

But its the batteries that are expensive and only have a limited life. That's the big expense to replace every X amount of years.
 

But if you could sell your excess solar power back into the grid and then use the grid when it is cloudy, then it would mitigate the need for batteries. Hopefully it would balance out.

 

I am no expert but I have looked Into this for my home, and even the honest supplier said that at this point in time, it takes no sense in Thailand.

 

He did say limited solar for pool pumps and a few backup batteries to power lights and fans is worth doing.

On 1/1/2020 at 3:40 AM, Silurian said:

Now if only the Thailand government would start to at least remove the crippling import tax on EV vehicles. One could only hope the Thai government would actually create some tax incentives to purchase an EV vehicle. 

 

If they are so worried about air quality in Bangkok and other regions, EV vehicles would be a great start. Shanghai has almost all electric powered motorcycles/scooters, if only other countries would follow suit.

 

Until they have the infrastructure to handle the electrical need of all those EV's they're probably better off keeping the tariffs.   In lots of Thailand, they already have brownouts and worse because the grid is overstretched.  That's before adding millions of EV's to the load,

 

Imagine the fights at a gas station when 4 EV cars full of people need to power up and there's only 3 charging stations.  Now imagine one of them is a big black Mercedes EV...