Solar panels power German electric vehicle recharging station

Winchester, UK - Solar panels manufactured by Evergreen Solar, Inc., (Marlboro, Massachusetts) are being used to provide the electricity for a new electric vehicle battery recharging station in a high-traffic area in Frankfurt, Germany.

The solar 'fuel' station provides free battery charging for small-scale electric vehicles including Velotaxis, Segways, electric bikes and scooters. The station contains six charging ports all of which receive their power from the Evergreen Solar panels located on the building's roof. The installation is located in a major shopping district allowing people to power their vehicles while they shop. On a hot sunny, summer day the station will produce approximately 21 kWh of electricity and enough annually to power 115,000 kilometers of travel for the average e-scooter.

The cost of the installation was EUR 65,000 and was shared by the project's partners Ralos GmbH, Mainova AG, traffiQ GmbH, Umweltforum Rhein Main e.V., Frankfurter Sparkasse, Velotaxi M. Graf, Rossel-Display GmbH & Co. KG and the Goethe Gymnasium, a high school in Frankfurt. "This new solar 'fuel' station will serve as a model for the transportation industry and is a major step forward in helping promote environmentally-friendly transportation," said Peter Rusch, Evergreen Solar's director of marketing and sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The charging station became fully operational on March 31, 2009. It is open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

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