DOE Awards $68M in SuperTruck Charge Grants
- EVs Infrastructure & Grid Connection News
Marin Holt
- 0
- 8 minutes read
- DOE awarded $68M across three SuperTruck Charge projects in January 2025 targeting Class 6-8 EV charging along I-15 and I-10 freight corridors
- Greenlane Infrastructure received $26M to build a 10+ MW MCS charging station in Barstow, California with solar arrays and on-site battery storage
- Utah State University/Voltera received $22M for a 9 MW concurrent / 12 MW installed system drawing only 4.5 MW from the grid via DER buffering
- Terawatt Infrastructure received $20M for 10 truck stalls in Arizona with 3 MW battery storage and solar canopies along the I-10 corridor
- Battery buffering enables 2.67:1 installed-to-grid-draw ratio; BESS reduces demand charges 30-50 percent versus unmanaged depot charging
The U.S. Department of Energy announced in January 2025 a $68 million investment across three projects to design, develop, and demonstrate large-scale public charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) electric vehicles. The awards, made under the DOE SuperTruck Charge initiative, target interstate freight corridors where Class 6 through 8 trucks require reliable megawatt-class charging alongside limited-capacity rural grids.
Three Projects, Three Corridors
The largest individual award of $26 million went to Greenlane Infrastructure LLC, a Daimler Truck North America-led consortium, to build a publicly accessible charging station exceeding 10 MW at Greenlane Center in Barstow, California on the I-15 corridor. The site will feature distributed energy resources including solar arrays and on-site energy storage, scalable MCS direct-current fast charging, and combined charging systems for Class 6-8 trucks. Two companion Greenlane sites at Colton and Baker, California are part of the same corridor buildout, with Colton scheduled for commissioning in late 2024 and Barstow and Baker targeted for 2025 operations.
Pearl Street Property Co. (Terawatt Infrastructure) received $20 million to develop 10 truck charging stalls along the I-10 corridor in Arizona, equipped with megawatt charging system chargers, solar canopies, and 3 MW of battery energy storage to manage grid demand and peak load events. The site targets freight moving between Southern California ports and distribution hubs in the Southwest.
Utah State University (Logan, Utah) and partner Voltera received $22 million to develop a charging infrastructure blueprint offering 9 MW of maximum concurrent charging capacity from 12 MW of installed equipment, while drawing no more than 4.5 MW from the grid at any time. The design relies on advanced AC/DC distribution networks, solid-state DC systems, and distributed energy resources to decouple peak charging demand from instantaneous grid draw, a model intended to be replicated at rural and limited-capacity sites nationwide.
Grid Connection and Demand Management
All three sites address a central challenge in fleet depot electrification: the gap between high-power instantaneous charging demand and constrained local grid capacity. Distribution utilities currently lack tools to rapidly process service requests for EV charging loads above 50 kW to 5 MW at sites with limited grid headroom, and interconnection timelines of 12 to 24 months are common for such facilities.
The Utah State project demonstrates the most aggressive load-shaping approach: by combining on-site DER dispatch with battery buffering, the facility achieves a 2.67:1 ratio between installed charging capacity and grid draw. Facilities using battery energy storage systems to buffer peak charging loads have reported demand charge reductions of 30 to 50 percent versus unmanaged depot charging, enabling cost-effective grid service contracts even at rural interconnection points.
The Greenlane Barstow project targets a strategically critical choke point: the I-15 desert corridor between Los Angeles and Las Vegas carries a high density of refrigerated and time-sensitive freight operated by Class 8 tractor-trailer combinations that routinely exceed 500 miles per day. Electrifying that segment requires on-site power exceeding the service capacity of most existing commercial sites in the area.
SuperTruck Program Context
The SuperTruck Charge initiative sits within DOE broader SuperTruck Program, which launched in 2009 and has produced successive generations of Class 8 efficiency improvements now in commercial deployment. SuperTruck 3, targeted for completion in 2027, focuses on electric and hydrogen fuel cell drivetrains with a lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 75 percent. The charging infrastructure investments announced in January 2025 are intended to ensure that demonstration vehicles from SuperTruck 3 and early commercial long-haul EVs have viable charging networks along priority freight corridors.
Unmanaged fleet depot charging can double electricity costs through demand charge spikes. Fleets using managed charging systems report electricity cost reductions of up to 40 percent and charger utilization improvements of approximately 38 percent. The economics of megawatt-class depot infrastructure improve substantially when on-site solar and battery storage displace grid peak draws, enabling utilities to offer time-of-use tariffs and interruptible rate structures that reward load flexibility.
Critical Analysis
The 10+ MW Barstow I-15 MCS depot uses megawatt charging system chargers rated to IEC 61851-23 amendment at up to 1,000 kW each; front-end AC/DC rectifier stages inject 5th and 7th harmonic currents with THDi typically 8-15% at partial load, risking TDD exceedance at the distribution transformer PCC where IEEE 519-2022 Table 2 limits TDD to 8% for ISC/IL 20-50. A single 10+ MW depot on the I-15 rural corridor is one of the largest single-point distribution loads in that service territory; low fault current availability on rural feeders tightens the ISC/IL ratio, pushing harmonic compliance into the strictest IEEE 519-2022 Table 2 tier (TDD 5% at ISC/IL below 20) and potentially requiring active harmonic filtering.
5-Year Projection
During the 5-year outlook, capitalized MCS Direct-Current Fast Charging ventures will drastically compress technology iteration cycles, demanding continuous utility-level adaptations to accommodate high-velocity product launches.
Critical Perspective
The DOE is investing $68 million in heavy-duty EV charging. Greenlane Infrastructure’s 10 MW Barstow project faces grid integration challenges similar to Electrify America’s 350 kW stations which have experienced significant downtime. The failed “ChargePoint America” program in 2010 also promised widespread charging infrastructure but struggled with reliability and adoption. How will these megawatt-scale depots avoid the pitfalls of previous large-scale charging deployments?
