EV across the Outback: charging a Polestar 2 with chip fat

Under the ‘build it and they will come’ hope, Caiguna’s manager, Troy Pike, took some convincing to allow Edwards to set up shop there. Covid sealed the deal. The Western/South Australia state border has been closed to all but supply trucks and traffic has been down 80%. Having reopened in February, Caiguna now needs all the customers it can get – even if that means it becoming, thanks to Edwards, a lure for EV pilgrims.

“We’re here to sell fuel, not to sell electricity,” states Pike. “But after careful consideration, we agreed, because I believe that electric and hybrid cars are the cars of the future.”

Pike says the three roadhouses he manages will be able to donate 60 litres of waste cooking oil per month (which otherwise would go into landfill), allowing EVs to charge for free for most of 2022. After that, there will be a cost. A crowdfunding campaign has been set up to pay $70,000 for each new generator and help run the existing one at Caiguna.

“It takes 20 litres of chip oil to charge a car,” explains Edwards as he watches a first batch of cooking oil being poured through filter paper into the Biofil unit. With a slight sense of trepidation, he fires up the generator and connects it to a Polestar 2 – the first in a small convoy of EVs that have journeyed to Caiguna for this piece of outback motoring history.

“I would say this unit would be one of the most remote EV fast-charging stations in Australia and possibly the world,” claims Edwards, proudly leaning on the Polestar and watching the charge meter rise. Fully charged, it should make Perth, 600 miles away, with one or possibly two stops.

The once sceptical Pike is enjoying his moment in the limelight. Aussie TV and Perth’s main newspaper came out to report on the installation, and he was a popular interviewee.

“I’m very interested to see how it turns out, and to see the turnover of people and the amount of people coming through now with EVs,” he says. “I think it’s a great step forward to reducing our carbon footprint.”

While burning cooking oil to generate electricity isn’t the zero-emissions solution that will come when solar panel/battery arrays become cost-effective, Edwards’ short-term plan reduces landfill and uses a fuel that’s already on site.

Respected EV commentator Roger Atkins applauds the initiative, particularly until the cost-benefit comparison of solar charging works out. “It’s important not to let great get in the way of good,” he says. Atkins champions “using whatever is local, available and efficient”.

This road was travelled many a time by AC/DC in their early days and was apparently the inspiration for their most famous song, Highway to Hell, and it’s fitting that it now has status as an electric highway. But the question is, now that Edwards has built the EV infrastructure, will the customers come?

“Over the past five years, the average number of EVs traversing the Nullarbor has been five,” he says. “Once word gets around that fast charging is available, we’re expecting it to increase to 20, maybe 40, even 100 a year.”

That potentially means an average wait of three days and not almost three months between visits from EVs. That’s definitely progress.