Circutor launches the PVing CHARGE and ECOASIS projects

Circutor has presented the PVing CHARGE and ECOASIS projects, two solutions to address electric vehicle charging problems. More than 100 people attended the inaugural ceremony for these two innovative facilities at the Viladecavalls headquarters.

The day began with opening remarks by Joan Comellas, CEO of Circutor, who thanked the audience for attending such an important meeting to deal with the new challenges posed by the current electromobility scenario. “Electromobility has been growing, overcoming barriers, with similar challenges facing every country as we advance towards a similar model. Vehicle manufacturers made the decision to transition to electric vehicles, and this is hardly a step backwards”. Joan Comellas underscored the importance of being prepared for this situation: “We have to really speed up the deployment of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure if we don't want to come up against serious mobility problems. At Circutor, we accept the challenge”.

Joan Brossa, Circutor's Renewable Energy Manager, presented the PVing CHARGE project, a charging solution that relies on canopies with solar panels and energy storage. This concept employs a solar canopy with battery support and uses 100% of the solar energy generated, ensuring it can be fully used for on-the-go charging at any time of day thanks to the flexible and adaptable storage provided by lithium batteries. This installation does not affect the power needs of each customer and even makes the demand on the grid more flexible. It not only shields parked vehicles from the effects of weather, it also uses its own structure to generate solar photovoltaic energy during the day, reducing the electricity drawn from the grid, and thus the monthly invoice.

Alfonso Collado, Director of Innovation at Circutor, presented the company's other major project: ECOASIS: a new and disruptive concept from Circutor that allows building a service station for electric or hydrogen vehicles anywhere, without the need for a connection to the electric grid. “ECOASIS opens up thousands of possibilities, it's a highly innovative project. Until now, energy was consumed as it was generated, and here lies the paradigm shift. With ECOASIS, energy is generated when it's available and consumed when it's needed”, said Alfonso Collado.

Energy is supplied by renewable sources located at or near the service station, such as solar panels, wind generation, hydrogen batteries, geothermal, hydraulic, etc. “Energy systems work like connected vessels. We can transfer energy from the hydrogen battery to the lithium battery and vice versa, as needed”.

Circutor's Innovation Director emphasized the importance of this new project: “With the ECOASIS model, we can leave a legacy of less pollution for the next generation. Until now, every generation has left a more contaminated world to the next one”.

To illustrate the importance of these two projects, Top Cable, one of the leading manufacturers of electrical cables in Europe, based in Rubí, presented its success story with the PVing CHARGE application. Its workplace charging solution powered by a solar pergola is the largest in Europe. “We were considering a solution for charging. In our country, many car parks are underutilized, and are only used as a place to leave your car. We saw an opportunity to use that space to generate energy”, commented Manel Milà, CEO of Top Cable. “The future will be electric or there won't be one”, he declared, to underscore the need to shift towards more efficient energy.

Subsequently, a debate was held to explore the keys to accelerating the electrification of mobility, led by Isabel del Olmo, head of the Sustainable Mobility Department; Assumpta Farran, Managing Director of Energy of the Government of Catalonia; Alejandro Valdovinas, Director of Institutional Relations at CIRCUTOR; Josep Casas, Director of the Office for the Energy Transition at CECOT; Ribera Francesc, manager of the CEEC, Clúster de l’Energia Eficient; and moderated by Pere Soria, Head of Business Development at the Circutor Renewable Energies Department. During this round table, Alejandro Valdovino emphasized the “need to develop a national strategy to promote electromobility. All the guidelines and regulations that are on the way have technical attributes, and we must be prepared to give a response”. In this regard, Circutor has upgraded its entire range of electric chargers. Josep Casas remarked that “the driver for getting into renewable energies was the savings”, but that “motivation has changed and now the goal is also to help with the decarbonization process. It is important for every agent involved to seek solutions to speed up the decarbonization and the shift to electromobility”. Isabel del Olmo demanded that we “be ambitious and set goals, and only with public and private collaboration will we get there”. Meanwhile, Assumpta Ferran categorically stated that “the future of the road is electric. Only electric”.

At the end of the round table, the two projects were presented to the public in attendance and Isabel del Olmo, head of the Sustainable Mobility Department; Assumpta Farran, Managing Director of Energy of the Government of Catalonia; and Ramón Comellas, CEO of Circutor, opened the installation by cutting the ceremonial ribbon.