Detroit’s Streetlights are Doubling as EV Chargers
Slowly, but surely, electric vehicles are gaining ground. More and more households are using these chargeable, battery-run cars in their day-to-day lives.
However, one of the main roadblocks to widespread adoption of EVs is the lack of charging infrastructure needed to keep the cars running. Now,according to Designboom, a company called Voltpost, created a device that can turn an ordinary streetlamp into a dual-use lamp and EV charger.
The Voltpost is easy and quick to install, and uses existing infrastructure, making it a real contender in the race to make EVs accessible to people all throughout the US.
Under an Hour to Install
The Voltpost is, at its heart, a very simple concept: electric outlets suited for EVs installed around or within existing streetlamps and encased in steel-like casing. These outlets then turn the streetlamp into a light and an EV charger. The chargers can be installed in under an hour, and include a neon green cord that pulses with light so that drivers can find them when driving on dark roads.
The advantage of this system is, obviously, that no new infrastructure needs to be built in order to create these chargers, reported Fast Company.
“We don’t have to do costly utility upgrades to the grid in order to do this,” Jeff Prosserman, cofounder and CEO of Voltpost, told Fast Company. “We’re just finding pockets where power already exists and then making it work.”
Michigan First
Currently, the company is running a pilot program in Detroit, Michigan and nearby cities like Dearborn. They have installed a number of Voltpost Air devices in places like the parking lot of the Henry Ford Museum.
These chargers are Level Two chargers: meaning they charge slowly and require less electricity than other EV chargers on the market. Level Two chargers tend to be more attractive to Voltpost’s target customers — apartment dwellers or people who may not have a garage where they can charge at home, but who leave their car in a specific spot for a good few hours.
Drivers can easily use either a credit card or an app to access the Voltpost Airs, which hang 10 feet above ground. Once accessed, a charging cable extends down from the device, allowing the car to be charged. When it is done charging, the cable automatically recoils back into the device.
According to The International Council on Clean Transportation, more than 820,000 new Level 2 EV chargers will be needed by the year 2030. In other words, there’s a lot of work to be done on EV infrastructure.
What Voltpost has done is found a way to make that work easier by thinking creatively and figuring out how to use existing infrastructure in new ways, and in doing so, may help the world transition from dirty energy to clean energy.
