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Friday, July 31, 2009
Infrastructure initiatives await surge in electric vehicle sales
By Jackie Noblett
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It’s not too hard to get an electric vehicle in New England. Charging it has been another story.
That concern — being stranded without a plug in sight — has been a stumbling block to widespread electric-vehicle adoption, even as the speed and range of the vehicles improve. But a number of groups are working to build the infrastructure necessary to help plug-in cars and trucks to take off and provide benefits to the electric grid.
The goal is to make it easy, fast and convenient for car owners to plug in at home, work or the mall, even if long-range batteries eventually make such stations unnecessary.
Companies had been loath to invest in charging infrastructure without significant demand, yet consumers are reluctant to buy expensive vehicles that are difficult to charge. Today’s vehicles generally have a range of 100 miles or less and take up to eight hours to fully charge.
“You have to really love the planet to buy a $10,000 (or) $15,000 electric vehicle that only goes so fast and so far,” said Don Stokes, who runs Salem electric car dealership ZAP of New England. “All of the battery technology that comes on line the next few years will be a positive — it’s just, at this juncture, very expensive.”
Paul Scott, vice president of electric vehicle advocacy nonprofit Plug In America, calls this concern “range anxiety” and said it is true only up to a point, arguing that most people will be able to charge their vehicles at home.
“It becomes an issue of comfort … If you have charging stations at restaurants, parking garages, shopping malls, they don’t have to have a lot of them as long as they’re not blocked,” Scott said. “Having charging infrastructure will be a nice thing to have.”
Entities building charging stations or technology are doing it for a number of reasons, from exploiting a business opportunity to using it as a test bed.
Northeast Utilities, which owns Connecticut Light and Power Co. and Western Massachusetts Electric Co., is looking to use U.S. Department of Energy grant money to build a network of 575 charging stations in the two states over the next two years. If the proposal is approved, NU would receive nearly $700,000 toward the $1.4 million project.
“As the next generation of vehicles gets introduced, likely late in 2010, we want to be sure that New England is among the first markets,” said James Robb, senior vice president of enterprise planning and development, in a statement. “The development of a charging infrastructure is important, both to support the adoption of these exciting new vehicles and to allow us to assess the impact on our electric distribution system.”
Other companies are going after charging networks as a way to store solar, wind or other forms of intermittent renewable energy. LocalWatt Solutions LLC, a Simmons College spinout, is developing a communications infrastructure that allows charging stations to connect vehicle batteries to the grid, essentially turning a parking lot into one big battery.
The Element Hotel in Lexington is the first hotel under the Starwood Hotels chain to install a charging station for guests and outsiders otherwise unserved by most businesses.
“Right now it’s difficult to go on a trip — where are you going to charge?” said Chris Hartzell, general manager of the eco-friendly hotel. “It does draw the people that have electric vehicles, but it’s also a great opportunity to educate people on electric vehicles.”
Not all the charging solutions have to incorporate an outlet. The ZAP vehicles Stokes sells offer another solution: solar panels.
“For the commuter that takes the train, it works beautifully,” he said. “You drive to the train station, the car charges while you’re at work, you drive home and then you can plug in at night.”
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