Energy infrastructure
EV Charging and Battery Storage Siting
We measure parking geometry, the trench run from stall to service entrance, three-phase at the frontage, battery setback envelopes, and dwell-time land use, then rank the host sites. The first 3 are free.
Free preview: 3 properties, delivered 3 business days after we confirm your territory. No card, no call.Photo: Dicklyon (CC BY 4.0)
Many sites fail on geometry before they ever reach the utility, and geometry is visible from above.
No room for the battery inside the setbacks, 600 feet of trench to the switchgear, single-phase frontage, eight-minute dwell. All of that is visible before an engineer bills an hour.
See how the research worksEvidence
The nine facts that decide a host site before the utility ever answers
Each is measurable from imagery, parcel geometry, or published data, and the most important boundary here is that none of it confirms electrical capacity.
| Indicator | Where it comes from | What it settles — and what it does not |
|---|---|---|
| Parking stall count and geometry | Where it comes fromAerial imagery striping, drive-aisle widths, parcel boundaries | What it settles — and what it does notCounts stalls, measures aisle widths, and identifies where a charging bank fits without taking stalls the tenant needs. It does not say which stalls the host controls or a lease commits. |
| Trench run to the service entrance | Where it comes fromVisible transformer pad, switchgear, meter bank, and panel locations, measured against stall clusters | What it settles — and what it does notEstimates conduit and trenching distance in feet, usually the largest civil line item and the reason good sites die. It does not size conductors or reveal what is already under the pavement. |
| Three-phase at the frontage | Where it comes fromOverhead line configuration in imagery, published utility distribution layers where available | What it settles — and what it does notIndicates whether three-phase service is plausibly on the street rather than a block away. It does not confirm hosting capacity, transformer loading, upgrade cost, or queue position. |
| Battery siting envelope | Where it comes fromParcel setbacks, distance from pad to lot lines and building openings, visible fire-apparatus routes | What it settles — and what it does notShows whether a compliant enclosure envelope with NFPA 855-style separation plausibly exists. The authority having jurisdiction makes the determination, and local amendments vary widely. |
| Dwell-time land use | Where it comes fromAssessor use code, gross building area, business listings at the address | What it settles — and what it does notSeparates ten-minute stops from two-hour and overnight dwell, which sets port counts and the Level 2 versus DC fast mix. It is a proxy for dwell, not a measurement of it. |
| Corridor traffic context | Where it comes fromState DOT annual average daily traffic segments, interchange proximity, highway classification | What it settles — and what it does notSupports corridor fast-charging siting with published, dated traffic volumes on the adjacent segments. AADT is not charging demand, and it says nothing about EV share. |
| Fleet depot indicators | Where it comes fromImagery: bay doors, trailer and van parking rows, yard fencing, gate placement | What it settles — and what it does notIdentifies properties operating as depots, where return-to-base economics work and one decision-maker exists. It does not identify the operator's electrification timeline. |
| Site control | Where it comes fromAssessor owner of record, parcel boundaries, owner mailing address | What it settles — and what it does notIdentifies who owns the dirt and whether the operating business is owner or tenant. Ground leases, easements, and reciprocal access agreements surface only in title work. |
| Program and incentive geography | Where it comes fromPublished corridor designations, state and utility program service areas, mapped community geographies | What it settles — and what it does notScreens whether a site sits inside a geography where a named funding program is available. Eligibility geography is not an award, and rules change between funding rounds. |
Many utilities publish nothing below the substation. Where a hosting-capacity map exists we cite it and its refresh date; interconnection cost and timeline come only from a pre-application report.
We settle the physical questions. The utility settles the electrical ones.
Nothing in the second list can be inferred from any public dataset, and we do not try.
Settled by the report
- How many stalls a site has and where a charging bank physically fits
- How far the run is from candidate stalls to the visible service entrance
- Whether a compliant battery enclosure envelope plausibly fits inside the setbacks
- What dwell profile the land use and tenant mix imply
- Which sites sit inside a named incentive or corridor program geography
Not settled — utility or engineering required
- Hosting capacity on the feeder and current transformer loading
- Interconnection cost, required upgrades, queue position, and timeline
- Existing service size, panel capacity, and available breaker space
- Whether the AHJ will approve the battery siting under local amendments
- Site control: ground leases, easements, and the host's willingness to sign
The five checks that move a screened site into development
- File a utility pre-application or hosting-capacity request for the address before any design spend.
- Commission an electrical site assessment: service size, panel capacity, breaker space, and the real conduit path.
- Confirm site control — ownership, ground lease, easements, and reciprocal access — through title work.
- Take the battery siting concept to the AHJ early, since local amendments decide the layout.
- Validate dwell and utilization with the host's own traffic or tenant data, not the land-use proxy.
Your engineering budget goes to sites that already passed the physical screen.
Screening is cheap and engineering is not, so the expensive work starts at the top of a list.
- 01Define the deployment modelCharging level and port count, battery size, host profile, required dwell, and the automatic disqualifiers.
- 02Measure the candidate universeWe measure parking, trench runs, setback envelopes, and frontage across every qualifying parcel, then layer land use.
- 03Rank and stage the diligenceAn analyst orders candidates, separates measured from inferred, and writes the utility questions each site needs.
- Ranked candidate host sites
- Properties ordered against your deployment model, with address, parcel identifier, and the constraint that set the rank.
- Parking and layout measurements
- Stall counts, aisle widths, candidate bank placements, ADA stall locations, and circulation notes from current imagery.
- Electrical proximity notes
- Visible transformer, switchgear, and meter locations, the estimated trench run, and the frontage service configuration.
- Battery envelope assessment
- Whether a compliant enclosure footprint fits inside setbacks, with the separation distances and fire access route measured.
- Demand, dwell, and diligence
- Use code, tenant mix, corridor traffic, and depot indicators, plus the utility and title questions outstanding per site.
Further reading
How this screen is actually run.
Capacity, fleets, storage, and what a screen is worth.
No, and this is the most important limitation on the page. A high rank means the site passed the physical screen, so it is worth a pre-application fee; only the utility answers the capacity question.
Yes, and depot screening is among the cleaner applications, because bay doors, trailer rows, yard fencing, and lot geometry all show on imagery. The screen can be shaped around logistics, transit, municipal, or multifamily properties.
Yes, as a physical and geographic screen: whether a compliant enclosure envelope fits inside the setbacks with a fire-apparatus route. Final feasibility rests with the AHJ, the interconnection study, and land rights.
Yes. A multi-territory scope applies one measurement framework across metros, and the report documents where source coverage differs rather than letting the ranking imply equal confidence.
Other property questions we answer with the same workflow.
Commercial solar prospecting
The rooftop side of the same properties: usable membrane, obstructions, and tariff regime.
Read the report typeIndustrial and data center site selection
When the constraint is transmission, water, and buildable acreage rather than parking stalls.
Read the report typeCustom territory and market analysis
A siting question outside these standard screens, scoped and answered the same way.
Read the report type
Give us a metro and a port count. We will rank 3 host sites in it.
Tell us the charging or storage model, the host profile, and the geography. We return 3 screened sites with parking, trench, setback, and land-use evidence in 3 business days, free.
3 properties · 3 business days · no card