SolarBotanic Trees to provide solar solution to support RAW Charging EV expansion

SolarBotanic Tree is set to provide its solar solution to RAW Charging, as part of an agreement to create 200 co-branded solar trees for its commercial vehicle EV charging network in the UK and Europe.

The SolarBotanic Tree will initially be integrated into the existing RAW Charging site infrastructure to supplement its renewable power requirement. In the future, SolarBotanic Trees will incorporate RAW’s hardware and battery storage into the solar tree structure.

By incorporating the solution into its EV charging network, it is expected to bolster its capabilities and support the rollout of the necessary infrastructure required to accelerate the adoption of EVs.

To facilitate the rollout of EV infrastructure, RAW recently confirmed the appointment of Nick de Mestre as chief financial officer (CFO). In this role, he will help accelerate the company’s installation pipeline of 10,000 charging points in the next three years with the expectation to have more than 1,000 charging points operating by December 2022.

“We are delighted to be working with SolarBotanic Trees on delivering aesthetically attractive solar power systems at our sites in the UK. This partnership is the next step in RAW’s delivery programme as it rapidly grows its asset base across the UK and Europe,” said Bruce Galliford, CEO of RAW Charging.

RAW’s rollout of EV charging will consist of 80 new sites per month from next January. The partner companies will undertake the principal contracting and designing of the sites, as well as installation, distribution network operator (DNO) connection, testing and commissioning.

“This is a very exciting partnership, as we couldn’t ask for a more dynamic growth focussed partner in RAW Charging. This launch programme is worth close to £3 million, coming less than six weeks after we launched the new company,” said Chris Shelley, CEO of SolarBotanic.

“We now have over £25 million in our sales pipeline from all over the world since we launched. Our challenge is unlikely to be the market, but more our ability to grow quickly enough to meet a clearly nascent demand.”