The progressive electrification of road transport is the cornerstone of the European Commission's "A clean planet for all" strategy, which lays the foundations for reducing the use of fossils. In this context, electric mobility is spreading more and more rapidly in the European scenario, but the limited driving range of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) still remains an important consideration for consumers. The charging infrastructure is in fact concentrated in urban areas and focus is needed on their capillary development for competitive, widespread access.

It is therefore necessary to find strategies for the diffusion of charging points outside urban centers, involving the so-called marginal areas in the electrification process. These areas are often agricultural and produce tons of organic waste every year, which is often not valorized. This is the case of the wine production chain that, in Italy, produces large quantities of wood waste (from 1 to 5 tons/ha per year).

In this work, a statistical model combines the use of biomass cogenerators (gasifiers) to convert prunings into electrical energy and to feed a high-power charging station for BEVs. Through the use of a battery energy storage system (BESS), it is in fact possible to decouple the production power from the charging power, increasing the quality of the service.

This study demonstrates how the current selling prices of energy for recharging vehicles are more than sufficient to guarantee a payback time between 6 and 10 years. This result generates positive effects on the field: a) the production of electricity allows rural areas to establish sustainable electric transportation networks, reducing their marginalization; b) the production portfolio of farms or agricultural consortia is diversified; c) a carbon-negative recovery chain for vine prunings is created, offering a sustainable solution for their disposal.