Henan opens truck charging station with solar backup, plans 100 by 2027
The site's solar panels and batteries are meant to ease the strain heavy-truck chargers put on the power grid.
A state-owned investment group in central China's Henan province has opened a model charging station for electric heavy trucks, one of 100 high-power truck stations the group plans to have built in the province by the end of 2027, Henan news outlet Dahe Caifang (大河财立方) reported. The station, in Yuzhou (禹州), entered service on Oct. 29 with 40 truck charging bays and its own solar panels and battery storage, according to China Transport News (中国交通报).
The station can charge dozens of trucks at once, and a fast charge takes a truck to 80% in 30 to 40 minutes, the paper reported. The solar array is expected to produce more than 10,000 kWh a day. Additional charging demand would be supplied with power from the State Grid.
A heavy-truck charging station usually needs 800 to more than 2,500 kilovolt-amperes of grid capacity, often meaning long approvals and grid upgrades, Dahe Caifang reported. China Transport News says the solar panels and batteries ease that load and add income from green-power trading and storing cheap power.
The operator, Henan Zhongyu Gelin New Energy (河南中豫格林新能源有限公司), is a Henan Capital Group (河南资本集团) unit set up in 2024. It has six stations under construction and 80 signed, group general manager Ma Cunwang (马存旺) told Dahe Caifang in mid-October.
Henan's build-out follows a national push. A plan issued in June by the Ministry of Transport (交通运输部) and 10 other national departments calls for 30,000 kilometers (about 18,600 miles) of zero-carbon freight corridors on major expressways by 2030, with about 3,000 heavy-truck charging and swapping stations built alongside them, according to China News Service (中国新闻网). Until 2030, centralized charging and swapping stations on two-part power tariffs will pay no demand or capacity charges, the part of a power bill set by peak use or connected capacity, Yicai (第一财经) reported. In Yunnan, in southwest China, more than 1,000 heavy-truck charging and swapping stations had been connected to the grid by late July, Xinhua (新华社) reported.
Sources: 中国交通报 China Transport News, 大河财立方 Dahe Caifang (via 10jqka), 大河财立方 Dahe Caifang, 新华社 Xinhua, 中国新闻网 China News Service, 第一财经 Yicai, 中国政府网 gov.cn (Ministry of Transport and 10 departments: 推动新能源重卡规模化应用实施方案)
Editor: Ian Lamont
