Santa Barbara County has installed a new solar-powered level 2 station in New Cuyama.
We first noticed this station at the end of November. It was taped off then and when we passed it again a week later it was still taped off. Both times the indicator on the EVSE suggested the batteries were fully charged. We have no idea why it was taped off. It looked operational.
For those who don’t know, New Cuyama is the back of beyond. It’s on Route 166 that runs east and west, leading from the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley to the coast.
New Cuyama, as opposed to Cuyama just down the road, was built in the 50s and 60s to house workers in the then recently discovered oil fields. The desert valley is sandwiched between the Sierra Madre on the south and the Caliente mountains on the north.
This is “drive-through” country. (Just over the Caliente range is Carrizo Plains National Monument famed for its spring wildflower displays.) It’s sparely populated—to say the least—and if it wasn’t for oil and the giant carrot farms that have gobbled up the valley there wouldn’t be anybody there.
Oh, there’s the Buckhorn Cafe and Richardson Park, where the solar-powered station is located. The park is a popular pit stop on the long trek across the valley and the Buckhorn Cafe and attached up-scale motel are destinations in their own right.
Beam EVSE
Beam Global, formerly Envision Solar, builds solar-powered, stand-alone EV charging stations using a large battery on a cantilevered pylon. The multi-panel array and battery are counterbalanced by a heavy steel plate and possibly hidden anchors.
Caltrans and Santa Barbara County have installed several units and more are beginning to appear elsewhere.
The unit at New Cuyama is a single array level 2 station with dual charging heads.
The installations at Caltrans’ Camp Roberts safety rest areas are multi-arrays strung together to power one ChargePoint DC fast charger limited to 30 kW. Caltrans has recently installed a similar array at the safety rest area in Shandon, California. This unit was installed in April 2023, is limited to 25 kW, and has been out of service more than it has been in operation. While I have successfully charged at one of the Camp Robert’s sites, the units are frequently discharged or not working.
The Beam unit in New Cuyama has two EDF Renewables (Electricité de France Renouvelable) branded EVSEs made in China by Webasto. Why they are branded by the French company is a mystery.
Similarly, why the Beam unit was installed where it is remains a mystery as well. Through traffic stops in Richardson Park only briefly. Picnickers or those eating at the Buckhorn Cafe will spend no more than an hour so. If they decide to charge they will probably get no more than six kWh, enough for maybe 24 miles of driving in an energy efficient Chevy Bolt. It’s 24 miles to Maricopa, where there are no chargers, and more than 50 miles to Santa Maria, where there are charging stations. Conceivably, if a Bolt driver found the station working and fully charged, they could charge for two hours or more, enough to get to Santa Maria.
I expect this station will be rarely used and often out of service, eventually succumbing to vandalism. While Santa Barbara County appears to be trying to spread EVSEs into poorly served communities, there are probably better ways to do it than this lonely Beam station in the back of beyond.
