Cities in Europe and elsewhere are being forced to come up with some innovative public charging solutions. Faced with the task of providing charging to residents who do not have assigned parking spaces, they need chargers that can be installed in large numbers throughout city centers, without consuming valuable space on already-crowded streets and sidewalks.

A company called char.gy began testing lamppost chargers in London in 2018. Now the Spanish city of Valencia has announced plans for a lamppost charging pilot, under an EU initiative called Humble Lamp Post, which hopes eventually to install no less than 10 million “smart lampposts” in various EU cities.

The city of Valencia has begun installing 12 “semi-rapid” chargers in lampposts located in various neighborhoods. The goal of the 30,000-euro project is to study the viability of extending this system to the entire city. Via the Humble Lamp Post initiative, the city hopes to acquire a large number of charge points at low cost, without the need to install new electrical service.

The chargers will be installed in pairs, so each streetlight will have two charging points, with a combined 14 kW of charging power. Each will have two adjacent parking spaces dedicated to plug-in vehicles.

Source: eSmartCity