There are electric vehicles on the one hand, and there are renewable energy sources. However, much of the time these two concepts don’t mesh, because recharging the EV generally means tapping into conventional power. However, Los Angeles-based renewable energy startup Coral Charge is taking a different approach: DC Ultra Fast Charging EV charging networks that run on solar power and are completely off the grid. Connect CRE spoke with CEO Burak Elibol as the company begins expanding east from California.
Q: Can you provide a run-up to how the concept of solar-powered EV chargers was born and Coral Charge was formed?
A: We established Coral Charge in 2022, and the rationale behind the idea of connecting solar directly to the EV chargers was that before we established Coral Charge, my founding partner and I were already developing on- and off-grid microgrid solutions that involved solar energy, energy storage and different loads. And while we were developing those, we came to a realization that as long as you’re able to generate the power onsite, the cost of electricity is basically zero.
After we left the company and got an investment to establish Coral Charge, we used the first year and a half to commercialize our first product, which is an energy storage integrated DC fast charger that is a drop-in solution. Basically, it’s a cabinet that you drop into the sites and then as we connect them to the solar, it becomes operational. We’re not just tackling the access to energy here, but we’re also bypassing the utility application requirements and the excessive timelines that the [charge point operators] are facing at the moment.
This gives us an accelerated development time, it gives us operational advantages and it gives us basically zero-cost electricity in our operation. And that’s how we established Coral Charge. Initially, we developed two sites in California. They have been in operation for the past couple of months; one of them is going to be a year in June. We’re now developing eight-plus additional sites in California, and we’re now moving into Nevada and Arizona.
Q: Along with faster installation times, what are some of the other advantages of using solar in charger installations?
A: Coming from a utility and renewable energy background, we do know that it doesn’t always go as you planned when it comes to the utility applications and discussions. Regardless of how much space you have or how many ports you’re going to install to that site, if the utility does not grant you the requested connection capacity, then you need to readjust your feasibility on both the financial and technical ends. So being off the grid completely eliminates that process for us, because as long as we’re able to install solar, we can input as many chargers and ports as we want.
The other advantage that we have is that, as I said, we’re not buying electricity from the grid itself. The cost of electricity to us is basically zero for the next 20 to 25 years until the end of the solar panels’ useful lives. Another advantage is that we are able to aggregate the incentives for not just EV charging but for solar and energy storage as well, which is establishing the backbone of our financial business models.
Q: In addition to working with individual property owners, Coral Charge is also gearing up to work at the city level. What are some of the considerations in working with a municipal government?
A: In working with the individual retail and commercial property owners, mostly we just lease their parking lots or rooftops to install solar. When doing these deals, installing solar carports or installing solar on the rooftop, they require tenant approval. So that takes time, most of the time. And if they have an anchor tenant, it also takes a longer time to get those approvals. But with the cities, we have a shorter timeline on developing these sites and getting a handshake with the city. This is also supported by cities having mandates to install solar and energy storage. So we’re not just covering their mandates for EV charging, but we’re also covering their mandates on solar power and energy storage as well.
Q: In terms of connecting the solar installations to the EV chargers, and obviously the location of the solar installations can vary by property, how is this executed?
A: This is where we get very flexible, and by that I mean if we have a parking lot, we’re able to install solar carports. It’s not just providing us an energy source, but it’s also providing an auxiliary benefit to the property owners as well, because we provide shaded parking on locations like Southern California, Inland Empir High Desert, Low Desert, Arizona, Nevada. This is very valuable because the sun is shining most of the time during the year. And property owners like shaded parking as a service to the customers. So that’s one of the ways we do it.
But we also use rooftops as well. And those rooftops, most of the time, are sitting empty, are non-monetized. So we lease those rooftops from the property owners and drop in the chargers. In that case, they don’t have shaded parking, but they’re making money on a place where it is not monetized at the moment.
And the third way, which is mainly what we’re doing at the moment, is installing ground-mounted solar on vacant lots along major highway corridors. And we’re developing a portion of that parcel to place the chargers not just for light to medium-duty vehicles, but also for heavy-duty vehicles as well. These are the three different types of installations that we are able to realize.
Q: Do you have any closing thoughts?
A: To sum up how beneficial we can be to property owners, we’re helping a lot of people to monetize their underutilized and non-monetized properties quite easily at a faster development pace and in an accelerated manner. And we are helping the environment, not just connecting a couple of chargers to the grid. We’re basically utilizing solar, which is pretty much in line with the philosophy of driving an EV. You’re not causing an emission in driving, but when you plug your vehicle into any charger, you’re causing an emission somewhere else because a significant amount of the power in California comes from fossil-fueled power plants. So basically, what we’re doing is helping not just the property owners to monetize their properties, but also ensuring that what we’re doing is sustainable to the core.
