An off-grid EV fast charger goes live at Victoria community co-op

An off-grid EV charger has gone live recently, this time located at the Smart Energy Lab, run by Glen Morris, in the midst of one of Australia’s oldest off-grid communities, the Moora Moora residential co-op in Victoria.

Glen Morris recently drew attention to the new EV charger via his LinkedIn page, expressing his thanks to Shane Arnold, a regional manager at Delta Electronics Australia, for organising the supply and installation of a 50kW DC charger.

We reached out to Morris, who explained that the new EV charger was a Delta Electronics 50kW DC charger with dual outlets (CHAdeMO and Type 2 CCS) and 3G/Ethernet/WAN connectivity.

The Smart Energy Lab, located within the Moora Moora co-op in Mount Toolebewong, Victoria field tests energy storage, solar power generation, and smart monitoring systems, and is led by Morris, a solar and battery storage installer with significant experience and the man behind SolarQuip, a solar PV and renewable energy training and consultancy.

According to Morris, the Lab is home to four battery electric vehicles (BEV), three plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), and “a few hybrids”, all of which need charging off-grid.

The new Delta Electronics charger was installed within the Lab’s “dedicated EV charging area with room for 3 x 22kW EVSE connected vehicles, one 50kW DC charger and two overnight 10A trickle charging points.”

“We have a Smappee Base dual 22kW EVSE with the Infinity system for smart charging prioritising solar PV only rather than battery supplied energy.”

Powering the Lab and its EV charging infrastructure are two 36kW solar trackers from Arctech Solar along with another 30kW of microgrid connected PV from the seven homes connected to the microgrid for around 100kW of PV total.

As sister site One Step Off the Grid reported in October 2021, the introduction of electric vehicles to Moora Moora came only after Morris was offered and accepted the opportunity to install electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).

The continued development of off-grid infrastructure is further proof of the value of one of Australia’s oldest off-grid communities, which was first established in 1974 and now plays home to 30 homes and 70 people.