In addition to being used in electric vehicles, Gogoro batteries and exchange stations can also be employed as power storage devices in the city. Now, Gogoro batteries have new functionality. The first smart parking bollard utilizing Gogoro batteries will debut in New Taipei City in January 2022.
Today, Gogoro announced it will further expand the scope of urban smart energy applications. Combined with Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) applications, the Gogoro Network® smart battery provides the power required for smart parking bollards installed on the roadside, bridging the last mile of smart billing, payment, paperless parking management solutions and stable power supply for more than 280,000 roadside parking spaces and more than 900,000 parking lot spaces across Taiwan and further improving parking space turnover efficiency while extending the life cycle plan for smart batteries.
Smart parking bollard solution extends smart battery life cycle
For this project, Gogoro has partnered with EcoLumina to jointly develop a replaceable power solution for smart parking bollards using a Gogoro Network smart battery as the power source for the TL Intelligent Parking Bollard®. It is expected to significantly shorten the time required for parking bollard installation, simplifying processes such as applying for road permits and power connections, road excavation, and construction.
Especially for areas with insufficient power or feeder lines, accelerated installation and popularization of smart parking bollards can be achieved with the replaceable Gogoro Network smart battery power supply. Widely utilized smart parking bollards not only improve billing accuracy for parking spaces, but real-time data transmission can also be used for actions such as differential rate setting. Smart parking bollards can also increase parking space turnover efficiency, automatically enforce laws during non-parking hours, and ensure the optimal allocation of right of use for roads at different times.
▲Replacing a Gogoro battery at a smart parking bollard (illustration)
Each fully charged Gogoro Network smart battery can provide the power required for a single smart parking bollard to run for more than two weeks. In order to differentiate smart parking bollards from the GoStation used by Gogoro Network electric scooter users, the Gogoro Network will work with county/city governments and parking management companies to set up dedicated GoStations for smart parking bollard smart batteries.
A smart parking bollard uses a stable flow of power which is not the same as the momentary torque output required by the motor when riding an electric scooter. The Gogoro Network currently plans to use previously produced smart batteries to supply the operation and backup of smart parking bollards and implement the application of smart battery life cycle extension in advance. In this smart parking bollard partnership, the Gogoro Network uses innovative technologies to break through and extend the battery life cycle, specifically demonstrating the results of close cooperation between the ecosystem and industry chain partners. This new solution, not only greatly improves the deployment efficiency of parking management companies, but also indirectly reduces their maintenance costs.
The Gogoro Network and EcoLumina's smart parking bollard replaceable power solution has entered the mass production stage. EcoLumina will deploy 500 smart parking bollards in New Taipei City by the end of December 2021 and will officially begin operation in early 2022. The current plan is to deploy more than 6,000 smart parking bollards across Taiwan by the end of 2022 which will greatly increase the proportion of all-weather automated parking space management in the market.
Smart parking bollards are only the beginning of cyclic application development in the life cycle of smart batteries. In the future, more diverse and a greater number of IoT devices will be able to combine to expand the scope of relevant applications.
Many people believe that battery recycling and pollution in the manufacturing process are major issues in the development of electric vehicles. In fact, through a variety of recycling solutions and continuous process innovation, overall pollution during the battery life cycle continues to decline. These decommissioned old batteries can be used in street lights, cameras, and other electrical equipment. Another advantage of the Gogoro battery solution is that power lines can be removed from view on city streets and the frequency of road excavation reduced.
In other words, can the smart parking plans of local governments be implemented seriously and continuously? Rethink installing and dismantling, dismantling and installing every two years, let alone excavating roads.
