CUC rolls out non-renewable charging stations
(CNS): Caribbean Utilities Company is rolling out an electric vehicle charging station initiative, offering to install stations in business and residential strata car parks and to maintain them for an annual fee. Users will be charged for the power via an app. Grand Cayman’s power provider is promoting the stations as a sustainable project, but the charging locations are not solar- or wind-powered.
There is a growing number of electric vehicles in Cayman as people move to cut their carbon emissions, and CUC said in a press release that the goal is to have multiple stations across the islands in partnership with the community.
“The stations are designed to provide quick, efficient and an easy-to-use solution for electric vehicles, which enhances the Company’s green initiatives and reduces your carbon footprint,” the release said.
The stations are not renewable-powered charging sites. But a CUC spokesperson told CNS that where feasible, a station can be connected to a panel fed by solar PV if the customer has an installation onsite. “During the process, CUC meets with the customer site host and electrical contractors to investigate any and all technically and financially feasible options at the customer site,” he stated.
CUC will supply the EV charging equipment and will pay up to 100% of installation costs, as well as all the costs for operating and maintaining the equipment during the programme, with a monthly service fee for participating properties of CI$79 per station. EV drivers will use a mobile app to operate the charging station they are using, and CUC will collect charging session fees directly from the drivers through this app.
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cayman has the largest amount of EV experts in the world. All of you need to go and sit down.
EV owners on here seem to feel entitled to free electricity. Why is that? What have you done for me? What is to stop you from plugging into my free charging station and leaving your car there lapping up my power while you go about your business elsewhere? As a business owner, I don’t provide customers with free gas and i don’t feel any obligation to provide you with free electricity either. Pay-to-play public charging stations will be the future (somebody has to pay), however CUC is dreaming if they think they can charge land owners a fee for their charging stations.
I’d probably cost you more to take a huge dump in your toilet than a few minutes of charging.
no, no it wouldn’t at all.
No one is arguing against pay-to-charge. (The charger-as-advertising or charger-as-employee-perk is a business decision, absolutely.) What everyone is deriding is, as you said in your last line, that “CUC is dreaming if they think they can charge land owners a fee for their charging stations”.
Isn’t the alternative that the cost for station is carried by everyone? I don’t have an EV (yet), and until I do I don’t really want to have to pay for EV chargers with my home electric bill.
CUC soon charge for this too!
This is another one of the CUC scams just like the current CORE agreement. They will make more money off of the system all the while charging the property owner even more. I think we need competition and perhaps an independent company to step up and do this on their own. The current CORE agreement gives CUC free power and then changes its customers more for that same free power.
LOL Umm you do not understand the electrical grid, those lines above your head are owned and maintained by CUC so for someone else to set up shop they would need to put in all that infrastructure in place plus the crews to maintain it not to mention the right of way to install the equipment. The general public just does not understand the costs of operating and maintaining a power system. So the other option is to use the CUC’s infrastructure but then there will be charges for the competitor to do that. Grand Cayman is lucky to have a reliable power provider, just look at some of the other small countries in the world where the power in not reliable.
I do not live on Cayman but have been there multiple times but do work in the power industry and understand the complexity to keep the power on.
LOL Umm you do not understand the electrical grid, those lines above your head are owned and maintained by CUC so for someone else to set up shop they would need to put in all that infrastructure in place plus the crews to maintain it not to mention the right of way to install the equipment. The general public just does not understand the costs of operating and maintaining a power system. So the other option is to use the CUC’s infrastructure but then there will be charges for the competitor to do that. Grand Cayman is lucky to have a reliable power provider, just look at some of the other small countries in the world where the power in not reliable.
I do not live on Cayman but have been there multiple times but do work in the power industry and understand the complexity to keep the power on.
Hydrogen Power (both combustible or fuel cell) is the key, not EV or battery systems.
EV/Solar is just another corporate profiteering charade with no future.
Hydrogen can be delivered using the same infrastructure (modified) as we do fossil fuels and you don’t need billion in new charging stations and electrical infrastructure re engineering.
Hydrogen can be derived from nuclear or Geo-sources.
If we don’t want nuclear here (which is moronic), you can import liquid hydrogen as we do propane and other liquid pressurized gases.
Whose backyard shall we place a massive hydrogen fuel storage in? Will you volunteer yours?
At 10,000 PSI… yeah no thanks.
Surely just as safe at 50,000 gallons of gasoline 20 feet from the road
Hydrogen is a byproduct of oil and gas refining, usually flared off as waste. The USA’s “Leading in Gulf Coast Hydrogen Transition (LIGH2T)” will be separating and capturing this clean energy fuel, and will be bigger than MBS’ Saudi plant, with other billion-dollar refineries and depots under construction in Australia and elsewhere. Hydrogen will be the fuel for tankers and cargo vessels of the future. Perhaps CUC’s diesel generators can also be converted. Diesel engine conversion kits are being developed by MANN and Caterpillar. To a lesser extent, clean Ammonia diesel conversion kits are also under modest development R&D, hampered by obsessive focus on electrification, and political hedging of vested oil and gas interests. Unfortunately Hydrogen is a bit of a fossil fuel greenwashing exercise at the moment.
Hydrogen is actually a byproduct of water. H2O (Hydrogen is the H) and you can produce hydrogen by electrolysis of water molecules. You can use solar or any alternative energy source to produce it.
You might as well drain a pond with a spoon.
Breaking that bond takes up so much energy that you’d be better off just charging a typical EV battery with the solar.
Nonsense. See Japan. Complete failure.
CUC will most likely nudge OfReg to allow another rate increase to pay for this self serving garbage. This blatantly shows that CUC is not interested in provisioning renewables. I wonder if EV owners realise these stations will be inoperable after hurricane or even a bad storm like Grace.
CNS is that right?
Company pays CUC a monthly fee, and then CUC charges the EV user to charge?
So basically a business owner pays for CUC to install, CUC then also gets to charge the EV user?
So whats the point if you own the property? To try to entice someone to park there and pay $80 each month to do so?
Having a charging station is an effective way to draw customers to your business – typically higher spending customers since electric cars tend to cost more upfront. I will hit up Foster’s over Kirk’s and Hurley’s simply because I can charge my car while I’m shopping.
That said, this does seem like a bit of a rip considering these stations shouldn’t cost more than $2k and after roughly 2 years CUC will have recouped capex from the property fee alone.
No thanks. Been charging mine for free at Camana Bay for years.
Transitioning to electric vehicles, even if charged from a non-renewable source, still reduces overall emissions and contributes to improving air quality. If only OffReg would just move ahead with the whole solar plant plans, we would not be fighting over an EV charger being “non-renewable”
I’m sorry but my diesel truck is much cleaner than any EV charged off NONRENEWABLES!!
For one, they didn’t have to exploit the poor men, women and CHILDREN of the Congo in order to build the vehicle.
ALL EV owners have the blood of children on their hands. How do you sleep at night??
Not to mention the short lifespan of battery packs in EVs which need to be sent off island for reclamation. This further adds to the carbon footprint of EVs. All the hype over EVs being planet friendly is total BS. But if it gives you that feel good fuzzy effect then go drop a minimum of $60K on one of these e-waste toys.
Talk about pot cussing kettle lmao
“Yes my truck pollutes, but you’re charging off of CUC power, so you just as dirty”
Lol no sir, I charge off of my solar panels, so over its life my EV pollutes less than your gas guzzler that requires fuel that is shipped in by burning fuel that is extracted by burning fuel.
I sleep at night the same way you do – your smartphone and/or computer or whatever you used to access CNS contains the same metals.
You gonna try to ban lithium battery powered smartphones too?
Cobalt is used extensively in petrol production and critical part of catalysts for gasoline and diesel engines. It’s also in the steel and in the tyres. Go back 4 spaces and miss a turn.
Misinformation again: “Tesla and BMW, have started to use ethically sourced cobalt from areas outside of the DRC.” “Tesla has published a new report on its efforts to make its cobalt supply chain significantly more ethical, safe, and secure.”
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-ethical-sourcing-cobalt-mining-impact-report/
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/Tesla-Master-Plan-Part-3.pdf
Roll dat smoke into the sea
Sounds like another Caymanian education success story!
Meanwhile in the first world that encourages electric car use, the governments and corporations offer free charging points and in the states, the ubiquitous Cracker Barrel restaurants along all interstates are offering mutliple free charging stations.
Always about a profit here.
Pass the rum.
I like to frequent the businesses that offer free charging whilst at their establishment. not paying CUC anymore than I have to.
So let me understand this, an EV buyer gets a lower duty rate to bring in an EV that will simply be charged by burning dirty diesel fuel? I am also sure that indirectly I am paying for this charging infrastructure through my CUC bill. You should only be able to get the duty waiver if you can show that it is charged through renewable sources such as home/office solar and battery storage.
Power plant exhausts are generally more efficient than car exhausts. So if we switched to 100% EVs and left CUC on diesel the total emissions should still fall. (Just by not enough / as much as getting CUC onto solar at the same time.)
And I wonder who it is that’s holding back solar power on the island… Probably someone who has a monopoly on power generation that prefers to burn diesel gas. It’s on the tip of my tongue but can’t remember the name…
i will complete it for you….it is called Utility Regulation and Competition Office of the Cayman Islands, otherwise known as OffReg
“So let me understand this, a citizen gets a lower water bill because they buy drinking water from the store, so I have to pay a larger bill to maintain the water lines? They should be charged a higher fee unless they can prove they only drink tap water..”
Boy unna gas guzzler logic flawed up in ya bad. This is a temporary stop and top up, not a replacement for at-home charging that is often done through renewables.
A General Motors spokesperson, Kristin Zimmerman, talks about how “clean” their electric car is…until the reporter asks about where the power comes from (spoiler alert: 95% from coal)
She also fails to recognize the environmental destruction caused by reckless mining and pollution in its sourcing of foreign materials for the lithium ion batteries, and disregards the hundreds of millions they spend funding child slavery.
🤡 🤣🙈THIS IS PRICELESS!!!
0:49 “… it’s coming from the building….”
She doesn’t even understand the QUESTION! 🤡 🤣🙈🙉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfC_-Ub9lRM
I would have died from embarrassment.
The sad part is the batteries are 99% recyclable material. They don’t recycle because there is no money in it. Tells you everything you need to know about the clown world we all now live in.
Tesla cofounder JB Straubel’s Redwood Materials is one of several battery recycling companies in operation and working with DoE. Li-Ion are about 90% recyclable. They will pay waste management companies to sort and deliver feed material.
Why would companies pay to install a CUC controlled energy vending machine? Just buy a level 2 charger and put it in, and let employees (that show up for work) juice up for a few cents on company dime. Fosters doesn’t go around installing pay-to-play milk dispensers in office coffee rooms, because that would be similarly ridiculous. No need to overthink this stuff.
Well they have to do something with their $5M profit I guess.
This is a new revenue stream for the publicly listed for-profit company. <$1000 costs against monthly $79 monthly subscription fee ($948 1st year), plus new usage margins. They won't loose a penny.
Costs for this type of charging station for frequent use are much, much higher than the version you plug in to your 240v at your house.
Listen closely. That giant sucking sound is coming from Sparky Drive to make everyone pay for the profits and shareholders and not a damn thing will be done to slow them down.
So a property has to pay $79/month for CUC to place a revenue generating asset on their site? Then CUC charges for that power (which is perfectly fine)? Why does someone have to kick them an extra $79 just to have the station on hand. Seems like another win-win-win for CUC.
And not a pound of co2 removed from the air as a result.
Electric cars cause twice the CO2 emissions of a regular car in production as well.
No, they don’t.
What? How do you figure that?!
Source: Trust me, bro.
“Producing an electric vehicle emits almost twice as much greenhouse gas as a conventional one.”
https://www.insnet.org/electric-cars-emit-more-co2-than-traditional-cars-at-production/#:~:text=Producing%20an%20electric%20vehicle%20emits,savings%20when%20operating%20the%20vehicle.
A) Read the entire first line of the article you link to. “Electric and hybrid cars create more carbon emissions during their production but are still greener overall” than standard internal combustion engine vehicles. And stop missing the forest for the trees.
B) Read the end of the article, which is not ‘pro combustion engine vehicles’ which is the point you are trying to drive, but rather is arguing for “Reducing car ownership – especially in cities – and replacing it with electric car sharing, would result in a much more effective reduction of co2 emissions in the short term. It will reduce the need for new car production and take more cars out of circulation. And it will shift from fossil miles to electric miles much faster.” So think of Cayman as a city and you’ll get an idea of what we need to do, by the source you site. And its not to not switch to electric vehicles, its to do it faster and more wholesale.
“you will own nothing and be happy”
You can own a bicycle.
Seriously, as much as I agree with not ‘renting everything’ (so I prefer to own software than pay subscription fees) you have to also agree that most of the time most of our cars are parked. The question is can I pay less over the lifetime of a car for the same level of mobility that my car gives me? If the answer is yes then why not do it? Its not like cars will not still be produced, if the economic balance changes.
As for anyone considering local shared vehicles please put some trucks / SUVs into the mix. I use the back of mine once a month the rest of the time I’ve paid extra (and am paying extra in fuel cost) for something I don’t need that day. If I could lease/share a vehicle and choose on the day if I only need a compact to go to work, a full-size because I’m going out with friends, or a truck because I’m going to the plant store then I’d be much more interested in it.
And, yes, this only happens (in Cayman) when we get driverless cars and can cut out the cost of delivery of the shared ride from user to user. (Or we get much, much better public transport with transport hubs where you can switch between the bus and the rented vehicle; and an even lower per rental cost. So lets just wait for the driverless evolution.)
people buying electric cars to ‘save the environment’ just shows you the level of brainwashing in society.
Roller skates?
You are dense. It is not the electric cars fault but that of the monopoly CUC robbing us again of being able to do our part to curb climate change.
You won’t curb climate change. Russia, China and India alone account for almost half. They aren’t going green anytime soon either. Even if the whole western society didn’t even exist, climate change would still happen.
By your rationale, everyone on the airplane should push out their nastiest farts on the premise that someone else might cut one first. Instead of going to the toilet and dealing with the issue.
The point is we in the western world have to suffer these less useful vehicles and pay twice as much to attempt to solve a problem that requires a global effort. It’s not going to work unless those much larger polluters follow suit and they won’t.
So we should contribute ro it and live, laugh, and love.
History will judge us appropriately.
1) electric motors are significantly more efficient than gas motors, period, end of debate. Even if the EV was charged by CUC’s fuel powered turbine, it still net pollutes less per mile travelled.
2) while an EV takes more resources to build, so do combustion cars, and the EV doesn’t continue to emit pollution over its lifetime, resulting in less pollution of the environment. Not to mention no oil changes needed.
3) the only person brainwashed here is you, a pawn of the fossil fuel industry who lobby to against EVs like how the tobacco industry fought against marijuana with propaganda when they saw the threat.
The end product of the EV is more efficient. The entire process to create the EV is what your little delusional self and the rest of people who “care so much for the environment” like to ignore because that’s the slaughterhouse you pretend doesn’t exist.
I applaud the concern for the environment, the issue is your concern is primarily there to make yourself feel better about yourself without ACTUALLY DOING ANYTHING.
Certain things need to be in place for these EVs to actually make the difference you think it makes but anytime the other side tries to say that, your side just screams the same talking points. “Fossil fuel industry, Boomer, You don’t care about the environment”
It’s tiring to try and work with people who have no ability to discuss points, debate or compromise and at this point I’m ready to just let whatever happens happen. Let the world burn and the tides rise because trying to talk about it is more painful.
No they are not, those very heavy battery packs last a few years then have to be replaced, generating huge amounts of lithium waste. Secondly in a post crash fire of an EV you have little chance of escape with fire intensity being extreme. Keep dreaming you are saving the planet because you are not.
Most of the EV is not waste. There is an entire industry of li-ion battery recycling companies already at work, and new emerging NdFeB sintered magnet recyclers. These companies are not going anywhere anytime soon. Battery fires do burn intensely hot in a very rare thermal runaway situation, but fewer NSTB reports of real world casualties for EVs than Hybrids or ICE. Most people after an accident, check to see if everyone’s okay, then immediately open the door and leave, if they can, especially if there is smoke or fire.
Thats because Ev’s are not dominating the market. When you see EV’s take the same market share as ICE you will see more deaths from lithium fires.
Say what you like, you will not convince me. I have been an electro-mechanical engineer for 45 years and I know a thing or two about industry.
The public is being duped. Even the word fossil fuel is a misnomer. Nothing to do with fossils at all.
you are wrong and here are the carbon numbers with a few assumptions to prove it:
To compare the carbon emissions of a typical gas-powered vehicle to an electric vehicle (EV) charged by a diesel-powered grid, we need to consider several factors. Here are some rough estimates:
Gas-Powered Vehicle:
Fuel Efficiency: Let’s assume a typical gas-powered vehicle has a fuel efficiency of 10 liters per 100 kilometers (or 23.5 miles per gallon).
Carbon Emissions: Gasoline contains about 2.31 kg of CO2 per liter. So, for every 100 kilometers driven, the vehicle would emit approximately 23.1 kg of CO2.
Electric Vehicle (Charged by Diesel-Powered Grid):
Grid Efficiency: Diesel generators used in power generation typically have an efficiency ranging from 35% to 45%. For this comparison, let’s assume an average efficiency of 40%.
Carbon Emissions: The carbon emissions associated with diesel power generation depend on various factors, including the specific generators used, fuel quality, and maintenance. As an approximate value, we can consider that diesel power generation emits around 2.68 kg of CO2 per kilowatt-hour (kgCO2/kWh) of electricity produced.
Now, let’s calculate the carbon emissions for the EV:
Electric Vehicle Efficiency: EVs generally have higher efficiency compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, so let’s assume an electric vehicle efficiency of 0.15 kWh per kilometer (or 0.24 kWh per mile).
Carbon Emissions from Charging: If we assume that the average carbon intensity of electricity from the diesel-powered grid is 2.68 kgCO2/kWh, then for every kilometer driven, the EV would be responsible for approximately 0.402 kg of CO2 emissions (0.15 kWh/km * 2.68 kgCO2/kWh).
So for 1 km the gas powered car spits out .231kg and the EV spits out .402kg which is just shy of double. Dollars per mile is a whole different thing and yes the EV is cheaper per mile to drive when the vehicles are similar in size (although depends how much power it loses to running the AC). But when it comes to carbon…and EV that is charged by a diesel generator emits more carbon per mile. Sorry
All that copy and pasting from chatgpt won’t get you anywhere because you fail to account for the fact that the generators need to continuously spin regardless if you decide to walk or drive.
When you get into your car, you emit carbon while cuc also emits carbon to keep the lights on.
When you drive an EV, you don’t emit any carbon while CUC still has to.
All of this, without you even considering that this isn’t the full-time charging method for EVs. My electric car is charged mostly through renewable energy, and our grid slowly but surely is heading towards 70% renewable.
No they don’t dumbass…when there is less demand on the grid the spool down and slow the generators and turn some of them off. Walking vs driving is not the question. And chatgpt or not the math is correct and you can double check it if you’d like
Hahaha maybe your car is charged off solar but most are not and the grid moving to 70% is a long way off…they’re at a pathetic 3% right now
What a load of utter garbage.
CUC produce at 18.68 kWh/gallon
Tesla Model 3 does 4.5 miles/kWh
Even allowing for an absurdly high 10% transmission and charging loss that’s;
18.68 x 4.5 x 0.9 = 75 mpg
Your gas powered car is lucky if it makes half that.
Down vote if you failed CXC science…
Idiotic analysis that fails at the first hurdle. An EV charged using diesel generators is much more efficient than a regular car running on gas or diesel because it has regenerative braking ie it recovers a large proportion of the kinetic energy to recharge the battery under braking. Regen braking and EV’s in general are especially effective and efficient somewhere small like Cayman where there are no long freeways. Go back to school 11:48.
I can’t refuel my smog-emitting F250 from my roof’s solar panels, but I can charge my Tesla and electric motorcycle, so your point is invalid. The billionaire arabs that sell you gas have you wrapped around their fingers like a gas line.
“yEa bUt buIlDinG EV iS DiRty”
Let’s also remember to get the gas to put in your car, a significant amount of fuel is also burned to extract, refine, transport and ship to Cayman, offloaded into trucks that then truck it to the gas stations that burn electricity to store and pump it to you.
everything you said about the cost and fuel used to extract, refine and transport to cayman is the same for gasoline at the pump as it is for the diesel burned at CUC!
You missed the part where the sun literally shoots the energy I use to move about at my roof daily
the vast majority of people here can’t afford it. tell me how someone can afford a Tesla on $10/hr if they’re lucky around here?