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Electric vehicle charging stations share a dilemma with their fossil fuel counterparts: they both only make small profits off the power or fuel they sell, and sometimes even lose money.
Alan Jenn, a University of California at Davis professor who studies EVs, summed it up to the Washington Post: “You can’t survive on just selling electrons.”
Allow a new study to make a business suggestion. Shops, restaurants and hotels within 300 feet of an EV charging station tend to see higher sales than other businesses without a charger nearby, according to the study published in the scientific journal Nature. So like gas stations that make back some of their lost profits by selling days-old sandwiches, businesses could try adding EV chargers to bring in customers.
That strategy has already worked on me. If I’m headed on a long road trip in my EV, I always plan to stay at a hotel with at least a Level 2 charger in walking distance. I’ve also been guilty of stopping at a shopping plaza and buying something just because I need to charge my car, especially in the winter, when sitting in a cold car isn’t so fun.
And these charger-adjacent businesses don’t have to be a collection of big box stores. Some companies are building charging lounges that look a lot like what you’d find in an airport, complete with Wi-Fi, comfy chairs, and restaurants, Bloomberg reports — so pack a book and have a seat.
⚛️ Feds want a nuclear buildout… A newly updated U.S. Energy Department report makes a case for immediately launching a buildout of large-scale nuclear reactors in hopes of tripling the country’s current 100 GW of nuclear power capacity. (Canary Media)
💸 … but is it possible? Georgia Power’s expansion of a nuclear plant cost more than twice its original budget, took 15 years to build and contributed to its original contractors going bankrupt, suggesting a widespread expansion of nuclear power will be costly and take longer than expected. (Floodlight)
🌀 Resilient rebuild: President Biden announces $612 million for six projects to improve electric grid resilience in hurricane-affected communities. (NPR)
⚡ Tribes’ energy challenge: Tribal nations often feel the impact of fossil fuel plant shutdowns, but many lack the needed funding to build clean energy projects and connect them to the grid, a tribal clean energy group says. (Utility Dive)
📈 Getting off track: A new Sierra Club evaluation finds for the fourth year in a row that major U.S. utilities are off track to meet the Biden administration’s emissions reduction goals, and many are in a worse position than last year due to rising demand. (Canary Media)
🕳️ Carbon capture roadmap: The U.S. Energy Department drafts a strategy for developing “dozens” of carbon capture and storage facilities by 2050 and building infrastructure, oversight, and a workforce to serve them. (E&E News, subscription; news release)
🛢️ Fighting fossil fuels: Black women lead a group of Louisiana nonprofits and grassroots organizations fighting the expansion of oil, gas and petrochemicals. (Floodlight)
🇺🇸 Plus, some politics
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