Parkland Group, which last year announced plans to build out 25 electric vehicle fast charging stations in B.C. and Alberta, now plans to double that by 2024, thanks to $6.8 million in federal and provincial grants.
The company announced Friday it plans to install 50 EV fast-charging stations at its retail gas stations between Victoria and Calgary. Most of the 25 installations that the company announced last year are expected to be installed by the end of this year, with another 25 to be added by early 2024.
And earlier this week, at an energy forum, Parkland talked about how it is lowering emissions intensities of the gasoline and diesel it produces with biofuels, and exploring the possibility of making biofuels from sewage waste.
Parkland owns more than 1,800 retail gas stations across Canada, including Chevron and On the Run branded gas stations. The fast charger additions will triple the number of fast-charging stations in Metro Vancouver, the company said in a news release.
The 200-kilowatt fast chargers will typically recharge most electric vehicles in 20 to 25 minutes. Parkland said On the Run stations will have two to four fast-charging stations by early 2024.
Parkland is receiving $5 million from Natural Resources Canada to help Parkland double the number of charging stations it had planned to install between Victoria and Calgary. Another $1.8 million is coming from the provincial government.
"With support from NRCan and the Government of British Columbia, we are doubling the size of our previously announced ultra-fast network, from 25 to 50 locations," said Darren Smart, Parkland's senior vice president of energy transition. "Our network will help eliminate range anxiety for EV drivers and by offering high-quality convenience and food choices, we aim to deliver industry leading customer amenities and experiences.”
“We’re making electric vehicles more affordable and charging more accessible where Canadians live, work and play,” said Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.
“B.C. is leading North America in the uptake of zero emission vehicles and is recognized as a global leader in Electric Mobility Canada’s 2022 report ranking provinces on the ease of going electric in a time of climate crisis and gas price inflation,” said Bruce Ralston, B.C. minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation.
“As of September, EVs made up 17.5% of new light-duty passenger vehicles sold this year in British Columbia."
Investing in EV charging stations isn't the only thing Parkalnd is doing to lower its customers transportation emissions. Parkland now makes its own biofuels from animal and wood waste, which is blended with the gasoline and diesel it produces to lower the emissions intensity of the fuels it refines in Burnaby. This co-processing is done to meet B.C.'s low carbon fuel standards.
At an energy forum hosted by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and Bennett Jones earlier this week, Jasmine Igneski, who is in charge of Parkland ESG strategies, said "co-processed fuel" produces one-eighth the carbon intensity of non-abated fossil guels like gasoline.
She said Parkland is now in discussion with Metro Vancouver to tap the energy in its sewage wastewater.
"We're looking at taking the wastewater biomass and putting that through our fluid catalytic cracker to use that as part of our co-processing," Igneski said.
