Last week, in the first part of the series, Marc Talloen began his story about how a Tesla Model S travelled 9,000kms through regional Queensland without a super-charger network. This is the second part of the series.
Area 3 was more like a transit area to reach our next holiday place. When driving from Proserpine to Bowen and Townsville I realised how the drought had affected this area . In the interest of farming and employment wouldn’t it be feasible to exploit the current competitiveness of renewable energy to pump more water via extra pipelines from areas such as the Cassowary Coast to farming areas that are frequently stricken by drought? Higher points along the pipeline may have potential for energy buffering with dams. From technological viewpoint it’s absolutely feasible.
The Ayr showground (below) may have great potential for the QLD Electric Highway plan. It has 2 transformers of 500 kVA each, powerful enough to charge multiple EVs simultaneously.
At my first trip North I only had a small battery top-up in Ayr given that I was expected to charge at Horan & Bird Company, designer / installer of PV systems in Townsville. However, “Murphy’s law” spoiled that idea as contrary to our expectations we didn’t find a 3 phase power socket but only one ChargePoint charger and without a J1172 cable adapter charging was impossible! An alternative solution shown below was demoed for fun but at sunset time it definitely lacked the grunt to charge a Tesla MS.
About halfway between Townsville and Ingham you can make a stop at Frosty Mango eatery, specializing in ice creams, sorbets and deserts made with local and tropical fruits. Their premises feature a large PV installation and they also have 3 phase power. In the future electric vehicles passing there will be able to charge and the owners are super motivated to get some Tesla Destination Chargers.
Here we charged at 2 private places with solar energy, 1 caravan park, Paronella Park, 1 tourist resort and 1 showground in Innisfail. Especially for Mission Beach and Tully Heads where we stayed for a longer time the Tesla UMC proved to be very handy.
Paronella Park:
Paronella Park is another magnificent ace card for the Northern Queensland tourism. One can enjoy the mix of the wet tropics nature, the Mena Creek Falls, and a local history with Spanish influenced culture. It’s easy to spend a few hours to visit the place and EV drivers are welcomed by the owners to top-up their car batteries using renewable hydro-energy produced next to the water fall (see air bubbling in front of the falls to the right side). Mark, one of the owners of the park was very impressed learning about the Tesla and expressed a strong motivation to install two 3-phase sockets for EV charging and if possible at least one Tesla destination charger!
