| State to install charging stations for electric vehicles |
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to charge your engines. The state is giving a $1 million jump-start to the fledgling electric vehicle industry, as the Maryland Energy Administration awarded grants Thursday to build at least 64 charging stations in Baltimore and the rest of the state to support a hoped-for influx of battery-powered cars and trucks in the near future.
Using federal stimulus funds, the state energy agency awarded a pair of grants to install charging stations at parking garages in Baltimore and at other sites in Maryland, particularly along Interstate 95. A third grant will go toward wiring truck stops in Baltimore, Elkton and Jessup, so truckers won't have to run their diesel engines as much to provide electricity while parked.
With GM's Volt, Nissan's Leaf and other electric vehicles expected to debut in the next year or two, state officials say the grants are meant to begin developing the network of charging stations that will be needed to support the new technology ¡ª and to encourage consumers to buy the vehicles.
"The point is to make this available to the public," said state energy administrator Malcolm Woolf, "so a citizen will know he can drive downtown and charge in that lot."
On average, Marylanders drive fewer than 40 miles per day, well within the range of battery-powered cars about to come on the market, Woolf said. By providing a "basic infrastructure" of public charging stations, he said, the state hopes to give a shot in the arm to sales of the vehicles ¡ª and to stimulate new businesses and jobs in the process.
Maryland joins a growing number of states and cities across the country that are installing charging stations to encourage use of electric vehicles. A California-based company, Coulomb Technologies, said recently that it plans to install more than 4,600 charging stations in nine metropolitan areas, including Washington. The $37 million ChargePoint America program, partially underwritten with a $15 million Department of Energy grant, plans to have 1,000 public charging stations in place by year's end.
Roughly half of the $1 million state grant won't go to electric vehicles, but to curb diesel fuel consumption and emissions with "truck-stop electrification" stations from Shore Power, providing power, cable TV and Internet so truckers can run air conditioners, watch TV or browse the Web while off the road.
|
