AN electric-vehicle charging hub which uses solar energy could be installed in a car park near La Collette power station as part of a trial to see if others could be rolled out elsewhere.
Jersey Electricity, which has submitted a planning application, said the solar hub at the industrial estate would be made from recycled materials.
It said the application aims to address the increasing demand for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, with the large-scale adoption of electric vehicles being a key part of Jersey’s Carbon Neutral Roadmap.
JE said it had submitted the application with the aim of running a trial in the car park, next to the cycle path to Havre des Pas, to see if similar infrastructure could be developed elsewhere. The planning application says that there will be no reduction in the number of available parking spaces and that the development involves only minor adjustments to the parking area.
Documents submitted as part of the planning application emphasised that “combatting climate change is arguably the community’s greatest need”.
JE said that the proposed solar array structure would fit “comfortably” into surroundings and have limited visual impact.
“When visible, it would be seen against a backdrop of far larger buildings, including La Collette power station, the JE engineering block and the energy-from-waste plant,” said the application, which noted that there were no listed buildings in the immediate vicinity.
The plans were lodged after Jersey Electricity worked with the Infrastructure and Environment Department and the Parish of St Helier on a separate initiative to install two electric-car charging points in town.
The 7kW chargers in the Parade form the Island’s first “neighbourhood charging facility”, designed for those who cannot install a charge point at home.
The facilities will differ from the rest of the Evolve charging network, as they will not be located in car parks, but are instead closer to residential areas.
With transport currently the biggest source of emissions (41%) in Jersey, the government is pursuing a policy to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles as part of its carbon neutrality plans.
According to recent data from Statistics Jersey, a third of households say they are likely to switch to electric vehicles by 2030, when the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned.
According to figures from a report on the Sustainable Transport Policy, electric-vehicle ownership increased by over 30% from 1,365 in 2021 to 1,789 in 2022, and by another 25% to 2,245 in 2023.
