GRIDSERVE Sustainable Energy Limited is a British company founded in 2017 to develop, own and operate

critical infrastructure Critical infrastructure (or critical national infrastructure (CNI) in the UK) is a term used by governments to describe assets that are essential for the functioning of a society and economy – the infrastructure. Most commonly associated wit ...

for

sustainable energy Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenh ...

production. Gridserve opened the UK's first all-electric car charging forecourt in 2020, and plans to open over 100 more over the following five years to charge electric vehicles with 100%

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

, supporting the UK's transition to

carbon neutrality Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

Activities

According to its website, Gridserve : * acts as a vendor and comparison site for the leasing of

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

s with Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions, with 100 trees planted for every car leased. Leased EV customers have the full cost of charging at Gridserve electric forecourts covered. * installs and operates a network of electric charging hubs and home chargers. A £1bn UK-wide investment is planned to build over 100 public charging stations. * operates

photovoltaic power station A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building- ...

s, also known as solar farms, supplying renewable electricity to the National Grid. The solar modules are

bifacial A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually flint or ch ...

, allowing them to harvest energy from both sides of the panel. Land at Clay Hill,

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

serves as one of the UK's first

subsidy A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

-free solar farms, coming online in 2017 and comprising 10MW of solar PV and 6MW of energy storage. A solar farm was also constructed by GRIDSERVE for

Warrington Borough Council Warrington Borough Council is the local authority of Warrington, Cheshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government services in ...

at a site near

Easingwold Easingwold is a market town, electoral ward and civil parish in the Hambleton District in North Yorkshire, England. Historically, part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 4,233 at the 2001 census, increasing to 4,627 at the ...

, York.

Electric forecourts

In advance of the UK mandatory

phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles Phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles means stopping selling and using vehicles which are powered by fossil fuels, such as gasoline (petrol), diesel, kerosene and fuel oil: it is one of the three most important parts of the general fossil fuel phase ...

by 2030 and anticipated mass adoption of electric vehicles, Gridserve is developing a countrywide network of customer-focused

forecourt Forecourt may refer to: * a courtyard at the front of a building * in racket sports, the front part of the court * the area in a filling station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that ...

s that provide ultra-fast electric vehicle charging services and associated

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

. Revenue and profitability are designed to derive from electricity

grid balancing Grid balancing ensures that electricity consumption matches electricity production of an electrical grid at any moment. Electricity is by its nature difficult to store and has to be available on demand, so the supply shall match the demand very cl ...

services and the provision of solar energy generation. However, the company pointedly does not call them service stations; the planned forecourts are intended to serve local communities, like petrol stations do, rather than serving passing trade on motorways. Facilities include convenience stores, office 'pods', exercise bikes to power the site, a children's play area and shower facilities. Gridserve's electric forecourts have a standard rate of 24p per

kilowatt-hour A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

of clean electricity, less than the lowest previous rates available, making a typical charge from 20% to 80% of battery capacity cost under £10. The first site of the planned network was opened on 7 December 2020 next to the A131 in

Great Notley Great Notley is a village to the south-west of Braintree, Essex in England. It has an approximate population of 7,845 and became an independent civil parish on 1 April 2000 as a result of The Great Notley Parish Council Order 2000. Archeology Ex ...

, near Braintree,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, receiving national media attention. It is paired with the solar farm at Clay Hill to rapidly charge up to 36 vehicles with 100% renewable electricity. 20 minutes charging with the 350 kW chargers will give a customer 200 miles of range. The site also contains a 6 MWh battery - which can store enough energy for of EV driving - to balance energy resources, shifting it to move valuable periods to keep prices low. Retailers at the site include

WHSmith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

Booths Booths is a chain of high-end supermarkets in Northern England. Most of its branches are in Lancashire, but there are also branches in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. It has been described as the "Wait ...

Costa Coffee Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse chain with headquarters in Dunstable, England. Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. ...

and the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

. It was funded by Hitachi Capital UK,

Innovate UK Innovate UK is the United Kingdom's innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services. It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm's length from the Government as part of the United ...

and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV). A second electric forecourt with a smaller footprint opened outside

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

on 21 April 2022.

Electric Highway

In July 2021, it was announced that Gridserve had purchased

Ecotricity Ecotricity is a British energy company based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, specialising in selling green energy to consumers that it primarily generates from its 87.2 megawatt wind power portfoliothe company prefers the term windmill rat ...

's charging network "the Electric Highway" which has chargers at almost all UK motorway services. In the first phase, all Electric Highway sites were replaced with more modern devices and contactless payment. This was targeted for September 2021. In fact, most sites except for

Welcome Break Welcome Break is a British motorway service station operator that operates 35 motorway service stations in the UK. It is the second-largest motorway service area operator behind Moto. It also operates hotels and motels. It is a subsidiary of ...

were upgraded by late 2021; the Welcome Break sites were delayed but completed by April 2022. In the next phase, Gridserve is adding "hubs" with 6 to 12 ultra-rapid chargers (up to 350kW) at many service areas. The first hub (Rugby) was built in 2021; as of May 2022, hubs have opened at Swansea, Exeter, Burton-in-Kendal and Thurrock, a further seven hubs are under construction, and ten have planning permission but not yet started construction.

References

External links

* * {{LinkedIn page 2017 establishments in England British companies established in 2017 Companies based in Buckinghamshire Electric power companies of England Energy companies established in 2017 Renewable energy companies of England Renewable resource companies established in 2017 Solar energy companies of the United Kingdom Electric vehicle infrastructure developers Charging stations