Based in station car parks and city center on-street charging points around rail stations, Smart Park makes best use of existing space to bring together road, rail, and electricity. According to Vivarail, Smart Park delivers emission-free travel, new transport hubs, eliminates emissions and helps people, communities, and the environment.
Smart Park builds on Vivarail’s Fast Charge solution. Fast Charge promises to recharge a battery-powered train to full power in just 10 minutes. The company, which showcased its own battery-powered train and related solutions at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, is now working on how it can make its solutions even more environmentally friendly.
To charge at the required rate, Fast Charge employs a high capacity 10MWh static battery which enables a large amount of power to be delivered to the train. The size of the battery is based around this charging rate, which means there is a significant amount of spare energy in the system.
Smart Park uses this spare energy to intelligently manage and prioritize EV charging and provide a source of providing energy back to the grid, whilst working with the grid’s active network management to ensure that the maximum number of vehicles can be charged whilst not overstretching the local power grid.
According to Vivarail, in the future the solution could help power buses and taxis, as well as rail and cars.