UNSW solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations

Students, staff and visitors can now charge up their electric vehicles on UNSW’s Kensington campus using renewable energy – thanks to a new solar car park array installed on the rooftop level of the Botany Street car park. One of the largest electric vehicle charging facilities in Sydney.

Six new electric vehicle charging stations, powered by PERC solar cells that use technology developed at UNSW, are available for use by students, staff or members of the public who pay to park in the Botany Street car park.

The project has been funded thanks to a $220,000 donation from philanthropist Mark Tidswell, who is a strong advocate of renewable energies and long-time financial supporter of the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE).

The solar array will also be used as a teaching tool for SPREE students with all revenue generated by these EV chargers flowing back into the School.

This project contributes to UNSW achieving its sustainability goals. Solar photovoltaics and electric vehicles are ideally placed to assist Australia to transition to a clean and sustainable future.

EV charging stations

More information

Location
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The charging stations are located on the rooftop level of the Botany Street car park. Entry is via Gate 11 Botany Street. View the campus map for details.

Currently we have six dedicated parking spaces reserved for charging electric vehicles only.

Signage is located in the car park to direct users to the rooftop.

About the charging stations
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The system has six Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations of 7.2 kW each.

The charging stations are connected to the Chargefox EV system and managed by Estate Management. Users will be required to download the Chargefox App and set up an account to pay for charging.

These chargers typically add up to around 30-40km of range per hour of charging and can be used to top-up your car while studying or working on campus or leave for the whole day for a full charge.

Using our Level 2 chargers, a 60 kWh battery can be fully charged in around 8 hours. A smaller battery of 40 kWh can be fully charged in less than 6 hours.  

Cost
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Users will be required to download the Chargefox App and set up an account to pay for charging.

Costs for charging are $0.25/kWh between 7am-10pm Monday to Friday, and $0.15/kWh at all other times.

As an example, to fully charge a 60 kWh battery, it will cost approximately $15 during peak times and $9 during off-peak times.

The usual parking fees for students, staff and visitors also apply via a vPermit or the CellOPark App.

About the solar charging system
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The photovoltaic (PV) panels have bifacial technology, so they generate electricity from light reaching the front and back of the PV module.

The solar array system is expected to generate around 100 MWh per year – roughly enough to charge 1800 standard range Tesla model 3 cars.

Contact
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For information about this project and UNSW’s renewable energy technology, please contact:

Jose Bilbao, Manager Utilities Management, Estate Management – j.bilbao@unsw.edu.au.

 

For parking enquiries, please contact: parking@unsw.edu.au.