Stations to plug electric vehicles
Jun 28 - News Sentinel
East Tennesseans driving electric cars will soon be able to charge up
their vehicles at a network of 350 stations throughout the Knoxville
area.
The publicly accessible electric vehicle (EV) charging stations will
begin to open in September.
The project is being supported by the city of Knoxville, Knox County,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville Utilities Board and the
Tennessee Valley Authority. The partners are part of an EV project
involving ECOtality, Nissan North America and General Motors/ Chevrolet
that calls for the deployment of more than 8,000 new Nissan LEAF and
Chevy Volt electric vehicles and about 15,000 charging stations across
the nation.
Through the EV project, Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga are all
test markets for the Nissan LEAF and the charging stations, along with
Washington, D.C., and cities in Oregon, Washington, Arizona and
California.
ECOtality is a nonprofit renewable energy company that won a
$115 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the EV
program. The portion of funding designated for Tennessee has not yet
been determined but will be driven by the number of cars sold and the
installation costs of the stations, said Susanna Bass, the city's
sustainability program manager.
"Owners of any of the new generation of electric vehicles can plug into
the charging stations," Bass said.
Identifying locations for the 350 stations is expected to be completed
in about a year, Bass said.
"We've been meeting frequently with project partners to think through
the challenges and opportunities for electric vehicles in the Knoxville
area and to identify places where the charging stations should go," Bass
said.
Two pods of solar-powered stations, each containing five charging
stations, will probably go in downtown Knoxville; officials are looking
at Market Square and the Civic Coliseum and State Street garages.
The charging stations resemble small, box structures similar to gasoline
pumps. Cars plug into them to recharge.
Most owners of the new cars will receive home charging stations to
"fuel-up" at home, but a network of public stations will be needed to
allow EV drivers more "fl exibility and freedom," Bass said.
Bass said city offi cials have met with the Metropolitan Planning
Commission, the Knoxville Police Department, the East Tennessee Clean
Fuels Coalition and the Knoxville Chamber to discuss possibilities
regarding the new EV stations.
"Everyone is very excited to see electric vehicles come to Knoxville and
happy to work together on this project," Bass said.
So far, the group has looked at more than 100 proposed locations for the
charging stations in Knoxville, Knox County and surrounding counties,
but no fi nal decision has been made.
The first group of Nissan LEAF vehicles has been reserved and should
arrive late this year. Nissan is taking orders for 2011.
Rebecca Ferrar may be reached at
865-342-6357.
Originally published by REBECCA FERRAR ferrarr@knoxnews.com.
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