We catch up with a start-up British company who are setting the standard and providing solutions for the EV of today and the not too distant future.
Much has happened in recent years with the EV uptake in the UK and charging infrastructure that is required to meet the need of its consumers. Earlier this year – In the Queens speech the government pledged to make the UK a ‘world leader’ in electric vehicles. Encouraging the installation of charge points at motorway services and petrol stations across the Land, with funded projects which demonstrate feasibility of their technologies leading to real life demonstrators that are set to drive market adoption. This is key for the companies that Solisco represent – other countries like Norway and the Netherlands are ahead of the game – if we were to catch up and do it better – this Government funding is essential.

The Choosing of Solisco Ltd a British start-up company (2016) to take the lead on the new SETCH project shows confidence in the British renewable energy sector and its ability to set standards and to offer innovative solutions. This combined infrastructure offering can make a real difference for the emerging EV revolution in the UK. The National Grid recently revised its forecast of the number of EVs expected by 2040 to 36m, double the number that it predicted just a year ago. As the number of EVs on the road continues to grow, there will be a growing need for park and rides and train stations to provide charging infrastructure to accommodate the changes in the UK vehicle stock. Public charging infrastructure has not kept up with the growth rates in EVs. Between 2012 and 2016 EVs increased 98% whilst charging infrastructure increased 44%

Completing the lead on this successful project would then lead to a step change in the deployment of storage technologies, smart charging and peer-to-peer technologies and would create a substantial future revenue opportunity for Solisco by extending Solisco’s market penetration. This would be fed back into R&D and will enable a step change in competitiveness for the company.
Solisco would not be able to fund this project without the assistance of Innovate UK. As a micro-SME, Solisco has limited resources to invest in any one area of technology. Apart from the obvious benefit of receiving partial funding for this project, Innovate UK funding would be seen as an endorsement. This provides existing investors with a level of comfort, and would attract further interest and investment, all feeding back into R&D.
There are 176 park and ride sites across the UK which are ideal target customers for the SETCH proposition. There are several park and ride operations due to expand over the coming years including the UK’s flagship park and ride in Oxfordshire which is due to develop new sites. Park and ride operators, train station operators and local authorities will be targeted under the dissemination element of the project.
In addition, there are 2,566 passenger train stations in the UK, the vast majority of which provide customer parking and would therefore be ideal target customers for the SETCH proposition. Approximately 8% of journeys to rail stations are made using a car which is then parked at the station and with national rail passenger kilometres rising 116% in the past 20 years there is increasing demand for car parking at stations.
There is a growing trend of major train stations all expanding car parks with St Helens, Staplehurst, Wokingham, Birmingham New Street and others expanding car parks in the past 3 years. Train stations use customer car parking as a source of revenue to help maintain the car park and the addition of revenue generating charging hubs would be an attractive prospect.

Other partners who have valuable input into the SETCH Project are
WEST MIDLANDS COMBINED AUTHORITY
KEELE UNIVERSITY
ECUITY CONSULTING LLP
ENERGI MINE LIMITED
DRIVENERGY LTD

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