Solar-powered truck charging gains ground on South Africa’s freight corridors
NAIROBI, Kenya– Africa’s freight corridors, long dominated by diesel trucks and constrained by unreliable power grids, are emerging as a new frontier in the global transition to clean logistics, with solar-powered charging centers designed specifically for heavy-duty electric trucks.
In Africa, Zero Carbon Charge, or Charge, based in Cape Town, is a pioneer in this technology. It follows global models such as WattEV in California and Milence, a joint venture between Germany’s Daimler Truck and Volvo, which have built solar-powered truck charging centers to support high-capacity freight charging.
Charge is deploying two fully off-grid, solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations along South Africa’s busiest freight and passenger corridor between Johannesburg and Durban, following a pilot project that successfully fully charged a heavy-duty electric truck using solar power alone.
The rollout along the 570-kilometer (354-mile) N3 highway – a key artery linking the country’s economic hub to its main port – is supported by a $6.2 million equity investment from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). The funding, announced last July, was conditional on the company building off-grid charging infrastructure every 150 kilometers (90 miles) along state highways.
Charge said both stations will be completed by June, enabling long-distance travel by electric vehicles along one of South Africa’s busiest transport routes.
Company co-founder Joubert Roux said the next phase will focus on the N1 corridor connecting Johannesburg and Cape Town, extending off-grid ultra-fast charging across South Africa’s major long-distance routes.
Each off-grid site costs about $1.25 million.
“This investment allows us to move from pilot projects to large-scale deployments,” Roux said. “We have proven that it is possible to fully charge electric trucks using solar energy, and we are now building the infrastructure to do it commercially and reliably. »
Charge successfully demonstrated its ability to connect clean energy to freight transportation in January by simultaneously charging two heavy-duty electric trucks supplied by Chinese company SANY Trucks as well as four passenger electric vehicles.
Other clean transportation companies in Africa have focused primarily on electric motorcycles. Companies such as Spiro and Ampersand in Kenya have integrated renewable energy into parts of their battery swapping infrastructure, particularly outside major cities. However, these are hybrid systems rather than fully off-grid solar arrays designed for heavy-duty trucks.
South African imports of electric vehicles have increased, but charging infrastructure remains limited and largely concentrated in major cities. Heavy-duty electric trucks face additional hurdles due to high energy needs and a lack of high-capacity charging sites, even as the national utility struggles to meet demand.
“Our approach is to build energy-resilient charging centers that are not dependent on an unstable grid,” Roux said. “By combining solar and storage, we can provide clean, predictable energy to fleets. »
Roux said the adoption of electric freight technology still faces several risks, including regulatory delays for site approvals, high import duties, truck certification requirements and limited vehicle availability.
“Fleet operators are under pressure to decarbonize, but they need commercially viable solutions,” Roux said. “This investment helps us deploy infrastructure for logistics, mining and long-distance transportation. We believe this model can reduce emissions while increasing energy security.”
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