Innovation Exchange challenge: Future Proof Net Zero Mobility Hubs at Park and Ride facilities – Feasibility and business case toolkit

Four Local Authorities, supported by the Greater South East Net Zero Hub, are looking for innovative tools to undertake technical and economic modelling and business case development to transform Park and Ride sites into “Net Zero Mobility Hubs” powered with PV as a minimum base case. The GSENZH would like to establish user-friendly digital tools to allow for flexible, adaptable approaches to a variety of demand and generation. This will enable the development of sustainable adaptable facilities aimed at a range of end users that may change as the transport needs of society evolve and new business models come to light.

The project partners are looking to develop a suite of potential projects to help them assess the feasibility and viability to support building a business case for developing Park & Ride facilities within the local authority areas to make them future net zero carbon facilities.

Park & Rides were originally established to reduce vehicle traffic entering urban areas where people could leave a car and use a bus to take them into a city, town, village or shopping precinct. The shift since COVID to work from home has hugely impacted the use of Park & Ride facilities seeing a reduction in vehicles using the facilities resulting in car parks that could be better utilised.

The project partners have the ambition for these facilities to serve as hubs generating and storing power for a variety of end use cases. Solar PV is anticipated as the base/minimum energy provision, likely to be in the form of solar canopies but also could integrate other energy inputs from within the local area. In time, the facilities could also provide a range of power-related services including electric vehicle charging, power supply offtake to the local area grid and power network balancing services.

The challenge

This challenge is to develop tools that allow innovative ideas for a future use case of Park & Rides to be modelled, both in technical and economic terms that integrate into public authority business cases for future proofed Net Zero multi-modal Mobility hubs that will be adaptable to the changing needs and technological advances in transport use and fuel replenishment requirements. The project partners would like to see feasibility tools that incorporate ideas that encompass energy, transport and improve the urban environment using new business models that would attract investment and alternative users.

It is anticipated that innovators will come up with a tool or tool-set that would encompass variable energy inputs and off-takers within this challenge. There should be within the toolset consideration of vehicle charging, power offtakes to the grid to support balancing issues or any potential power use to create other forms of energy. We are not seeking site-specific designs for energy generation or infrastructure.

The project scope will therefore include exploration of the role of Park and Ride facilities as multi-modal hubs with potential to include re-fuelling points for any future fuel, such as but not limited to EV and hydrogen. There must be flexibility to consider a variety of charging solutions including slow chargers that could feed long term parking stays and /or more rapid chargers and other potential future options and future energy sources. Proposals must not consider tools that favours one charging solution at the expense of others, the solution needs to recognise the strategic intentions of local authorities for individual sites.

Any solutions arising through this work would need to be scalable, replicable and an interchangeable offer would be most favoured to meet the differing needs of the local authorities mentioned above as well as to allow for a wider uptake from other local authorities across the Greater South East and across England.

For further information, technical and functional requirements, and more detailed background, please visit the Innovation Exchange site at the link below.