
In the waning days of the Biden administration, the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $68 million investment intended to design, develop, and demonstrate commercial electric vehicle (EV) charging sites located near key ports, distribution hubs, and major corridors across the country.
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The projects were chosen and funded through the DOE's SuperTruck Charge Initiative with the goal of accelerating public EV charging infrastructure specifically for medium- and heavy-duty EVs.
For DOE history buffs, the SuperTruck Charge Program initially kicked back in 2009 and gradually evolved to become SuperTruck2 and SuperTruck3. Each stage took into account new efficiency technologies, including improved engine brake thermal efficiency. SuperTruck3 projects, designed to reduce greenhouse gas and air pollutions by an impressive 75%, are set to be completed in 2027. Additional benefits involve total cost of truck ownership reduction and a focus on increasing battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell (FCEV) trucks.
“The U.S. Department of Energy’s SuperTruck program has significantly advanced energy-efficient technologies for freight trucks which play a vital role in our economy, said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “The new SuperTruck Charge projects will add to these advancements by demonstrating replicable models that deliver cost-effective, high-power charging for electric trucks while improving grid resiliency and reliability for medium- and heavy-duty EV deployment.”
These latest SuperTruck Charge projects will each include high-power charging installations specifically designed for medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) electric fleets upwards of 100 vehicles. Aimed directly at long-haul use cases of more than 500 miles daily, the installations will be constructed not only along major corridors but also rural regions where there's currently little grid capacity.
A few of the selected projects include:
- Supercharging the Southwest: Charging Deployment Along the I-10 Corridor, Pearl Street Property Company (Terawatt Infrastructure), San Francisco, CA ($20 million) will demonstrate innovative grid and load management strategies at a charging site along the I-10 corridor in either Goodyear, Arizona or Tucson, Arizona. This project provides 10 pull-through truck charging stalls with megawatt charging systems (MCS) compatible chargers, solar canopies, and 3 megawatts (MW) of battery electric storage systems. The team will achieve this by supplementing available utility power with energy storage systems and on-site generation if power demand exceeds utility power available.
- Mega Charging the I-15 Corridor, Greenlane Infrastructure, LLC, Santa Monica, CA ($26 million) will support multiple generations of MHD EV charging on freight corridors, producing real world operational data resulting in the validation of innovative controls all while reducing electric-grid impact. Greenlane will deploy a publicly accessible 10+ MW MHD EV charging station at Greenlane Center in Barstow, California. The site will feature distributed energy resource (DER) systems to help balance the utility load, including solar arrays and energy storage. Additionally, the site will offer combined charging systems and be futureproofed with scalable MCS direct current fast charging MHD EV chargers. The project will create replicable, scalable, grid-integrated high-power charging infrastructure along the I-15 corridor to support widespread adoption of Class 6-8 electric trucks.
- SUPERCHARGE: Sustainable Utilization of Power Infrastructure Enabling Rapid and Replicable MHDVs Charging through Hybrid AC/DC Distribution Networks and Renewable Grid Energy Integration, Utah State University, Logan, UT ($22 million) will establish a reliable, replicable, and scalable charging infrastructure blueprint that can be implemented nationwide, even in areas with limited grid capacity. The team will demonstrate the SuperCharge charging facility with 9 MW of max concurrent charging capability and 12 MW of installed EV charging equipment, while drawing less than 4.5 MW from the grid. This will be realized through advanced facility energy and fleet management tools and cost-effective architecture that combines existing AC charging and distribution infrastructure with emerging solid-state DC distribution, DERs, and MW-class charging.