DEBUT: UK’s first-ever all-electric street
The UK’s first-ever road of electric cars has been created by the ‘My Electric Avenue’ project.
Located in Marlow, the ‘street of the future’ contains nine neighbours with all-new, all-electric Nissan Leafs for use over 18months.
During the trial period, the residents will test a new technology which monitors and controls the electricity demand from charging electric cars.
The project, led by EA Technology and hosted by Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSEPD), aims to discover essential learning about managing the local electricity network.
“The Nissan Leaf is the perfect car for short and medium length journeys.”
Caroline Birkbeck
My Electric Avenue focuses on how best to manage the network when a large number of EVs charge in the same street at the same time.
It is also the first trial that directly controls domestic EV charging to prevent underground cables, overhead lines and substations being overloaded.
The project aims to prove a solution that would avoid the need to dig up the roads to install higher capacity electric cables.
Caroline Birkbeck, one of the trial participants, said: “The Nissan Leaf is the perfect car for short and medium length journeys.
“It’s also incredibly cheap to recharge, with running costs of just 10-15% of our diesel car.
“I’m delighted to be part of this trial, it’s already showing that electric vehicles are an ideal form of transport today, and they are likely to become even more popular as their technology develops in the future.”
My Electric Avenue set out last year to recruit groups of neighbours on the same street in ten different locations to drive electric cars as part of their trial.
Marlow is the first of eleven ‘clusters’ around Britain that are currently receiving deliveries of Nissan Leafs, charging points, and equipment that monitors and controls charging.
The other ‘residential clusters’ are in Chineham, Chiswick, Lyndhurst, South Gosforth and Wylam, with two more based in South Shields.
In addition there are two ‘workplace-based clusters’: Slough Borough Council and Your Homes Newcastle.
