A report from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and German freight and logistics company Streck Transportgesellschaft looks to assess the most cost-effective ways of delivering electric truck charging infrastructure in Germany.
May 15, 2026
Deploying a combination of solar PV, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and energy management systems (EMS) at a chargepoint serving trucks in Germany could reduce the cost of its electricity by 62.5%.
This is the key takeaway from a report from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and German freight and logistics company Streck Transportgesellschaft, published this week. The report looks to assess the most cost-effective ways of delivering electric truck charging infrastructure in Germany—noting that such vehicles are now sufficiently cheap and have a sufficient range to be effective—as robust charging infrastructure remains a barrier to the more widespread deployment of electric heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).
The research team completed 140 simulations across six scenarios—involving anywhere from two electric trucks to 80 such vehicles—in Germany to assess the most cost-effective way of powering charging facilities for these trucks. The study recommends the installation of a solar PV system covering one-quarter of a chargepoint building’s available roof area—which would give such a system an average capacity of 2.3MW—alongside a BESS of 1-2MWh.
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This would allow on-site generation to meet 60% of the building’s energy demand, and 77% of its charging needs, and would reduce annual electricity costs by up to 62.3%, compared to an “uncontrolled operation” not using these technologies. The report also highlights the “added value” of integrating an EMS into the system to manage the charging process, to ensure that the maximum available grid connection capacity of 2MW is not exceeded.
The research found that a single AC-coupled low voltage charger—of 150kW for “local transport vehicles” and 350kW for vehicles taking long-distance journeys— would be sufficient to provide charging services.
The report also notes that, should this approach be delivered, the scale of the solar and storage components could be expanded.
The researchers argue that the storage system should be expanded to 2MW/4MWh, an expansion that would be “economically robust under all scenarios”, and this would allow the BESS to function as an “emergency reserve” of power for the charging depot as a whole, should its power supply be compromised. According to the report, a BESS with a capacity of 4MWh can maintain depot operations for at least two hours on more than half of the days in a year in the event of a grid outage.
EVs in general have been increasingly popular in Germany, which was one of five leading European EV markets to post year-on-year growth in EV sales of more than 40% in March this year.
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Germany has also been a leader in chargepoint installation, with 67% of its motorways covered by public chargepoints, as of last year, well above the EU target of 15%. Streck Transportgesellschaft managing director Gerald Penner said that the latest research will help determine the “next step” for Germany as it looks to expand its EV services for electric trucks in particular.
“Based on the recommendations from this simulation study, we are now in a position to make informed investment decisions and will move on to concrete implementation in the next step,” said Penner.
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