BC Powers Up Charging Station
Locations Across Area Hold The Future Of Electric Cars
Posted: March 15, 2013
HARRISONBURG — With a local electric vehicle charging station officially opening next week and another in the works, one question begs to be answered: Who will use them?
But officials say even if few do in the beginning, that number should pick up over time, and education — not profit — is the main goal for the units.
Bridgewater College will dedicate its new electric vehicle charging station at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Stone Village parking lot.
The $6,000 station was paid for with a U.S. Department of Energy grant, which was part of an overall goal to help speed up the production of electric vehicles while reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas production and creating jobs, according to a press release from the college.
Bridgewater College will use the station for its three electric vehicles, and the unit will be available to faculty, staff and students. The unit can charge two cars at once on two strengths, 120 volts and 240 volts.
While it won’t be available for public use immediately, it will be soon, according to Teshome Molalenge, director of the college’s Center for Sustainability.
Charging a vehicle at the station won’t be free, although Molalenge said college officials are still working out details on how much to charge.
A few miles away, James Madison University could become the home of a solar-powered electric vehicle charging station.
The project is in the early stages; university officials just held the first meeting regarding it Tuesday.
JMU’s Virginia Center for Wind Energy will start searching for funding sources for the project soon, according to Associate Director Remy Pangle. She’s not sure yet whether the station would be open to the public or if consumers would have to pay.
The station is part of the second phase of the Small Wind Training and Testing Facility project. The first stage involved the construction of the 120-foot-tall, 7.5-kilowatt wind turbine found on the university’s east campus.
The second phase contains not only the charging station but also the construction of two smaller wind turbines purchased with the original $800,000 grant JMU received for the whole project.
Eastern Mennonite University also planned on adding charging stations to its commuter lot, a project that’s since been tabled. If the university were to do so, it would probably need to charge for the service, said C. Eldon Kurtz, director of physical plant at EMU.
Looking For A Charge?
The projects will add to a number of charging stations already in the area, including ones at car dealerships and even at motels.
In 2009, EMU installed a less expensive model costing less than $500, according to Kurtz. Although charging a vehicle with the 110-volt unit is free, Kurtz said he’s never seen anyone use it.
Possibly the most well-known station locally is the 240-volt machine in the Harrisonburg Electric Commission’s parking lot off South Liberty Street in downtown Harrisonburg. While it’s also free to the public, HEC Assistant General Manager Brian O’Dell estimated in April that the unit, installed in 2011, was being used less than three times per month.
While the relative lack of use at local charging stations may suggest otherwise, one salesman says electric car sales have taken off in recent months.
“We saw a dramatic increase [late last year] to where we weren’t able to keep them in stock,” said Joe Bowman Chevrolet’s Sam Wilson of the Chevrolet Volt.
The dealership is sold out of Volts, which take about 10 hours to charge on a 110-volt plug and about four hours on a 240-volt charger. Pricing for the car starts at almost $40,000.
But Sam Frank, salesman at Harrisonburg Nissan, said the all-electric Nissan Leaf is not a big seller.
“We get a lot of inquiries but not a lot of people want to spend the money,” he said of the car, which usually costs upward of $35,000.
Still, Alleyn Harned, executive director of Harrisonburg-based Virginia Clean Cities, said he expects the area to see a jump in electric vehicles.
“Consumers are going for these vehicles and they’re getting cheaper,” he said, adding that the number of all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in Virginia has skyrocketed from about 260 in February 2012 to more than 1,000 last month.
Harned said that most people with electric vehicles charge them at home.
But regardless of the current number on the roads locally, JMU and BC officials stand behind new stations, saying they’ll be beneficial in the future.
“For us as a college, this is really an investment,” Molalenge said, adding that more people will be buying electric cars in the future. “We want to use this kind of technology because it provides learning for our students. … And also … whenever you put new initiatives on campus, it has the potential to influence attitudes and behavior regarding sustainability.”
Contact Candace Sipos at 574-6275 or csipos@dnronline.com
But officials say even if few do in the beginning, that number should pick up over time, and education — not profit — is the main goal for the units.
Bridgewater College will dedicate its new electric vehicle charging station at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Stone Village parking lot.
The $6,000 station was paid for with a U.S. Department of Energy grant, which was part of an overall goal to help speed up the production of electric vehicles while reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas production and creating jobs, according to a press release from the college.
Bridgewater College will use the station for its three electric vehicles, and the unit will be available to faculty, staff and students. The unit can charge two cars at once on two strengths, 120 volts and 240 volts.
While it won’t be available for public use immediately, it will be soon, according to Teshome Molalenge, director of the college’s Center for Sustainability.
Charging a vehicle at the station won’t be free, although Molalenge said college officials are still working out details on how much to charge.
A few miles away, James Madison University could become the home of a solar-powered electric vehicle charging station.
The project is in the early stages; university officials just held the first meeting regarding it Tuesday.
JMU’s Virginia Center for Wind Energy will start searching for funding sources for the project soon, according to Associate Director Remy Pangle. She’s not sure yet whether the station would be open to the public or if consumers would have to pay.
The station is part of the second phase of the Small Wind Training and Testing Facility project. The first stage involved the construction of the 120-foot-tall, 7.5-kilowatt wind turbine found on the university’s east campus.
The second phase contains not only the charging station but also the construction of two smaller wind turbines purchased with the original $800,000 grant JMU received for the whole project.
Eastern Mennonite University also planned on adding charging stations to its commuter lot, a project that’s since been tabled. If the university were to do so, it would probably need to charge for the service, said C. Eldon Kurtz, director of physical plant at EMU.
Looking For A Charge?
The projects will add to a number of charging stations already in the area, including ones at car dealerships and even at motels.
In 2009, EMU installed a less expensive model costing less than $500, according to Kurtz. Although charging a vehicle with the 110-volt unit is free, Kurtz said he’s never seen anyone use it.
Possibly the most well-known station locally is the 240-volt machine in the Harrisonburg Electric Commission’s parking lot off South Liberty Street in downtown Harrisonburg. While it’s also free to the public, HEC Assistant General Manager Brian O’Dell estimated in April that the unit, installed in 2011, was being used less than three times per month.
While the relative lack of use at local charging stations may suggest otherwise, one salesman says electric car sales have taken off in recent months.
“We saw a dramatic increase [late last year] to where we weren’t able to keep them in stock,” said Joe Bowman Chevrolet’s Sam Wilson of the Chevrolet Volt.
The dealership is sold out of Volts, which take about 10 hours to charge on a 110-volt plug and about four hours on a 240-volt charger. Pricing for the car starts at almost $40,000.
But Sam Frank, salesman at Harrisonburg Nissan, said the all-electric Nissan Leaf is not a big seller.
“We get a lot of inquiries but not a lot of people want to spend the money,” he said of the car, which usually costs upward of $35,000.
Still, Alleyn Harned, executive director of Harrisonburg-based Virginia Clean Cities, said he expects the area to see a jump in electric vehicles.
“Consumers are going for these vehicles and they’re getting cheaper,” he said, adding that the number of all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in Virginia has skyrocketed from about 260 in February 2012 to more than 1,000 last month.
Harned said that most people with electric vehicles charge them at home.
But regardless of the current number on the roads locally, JMU and BC officials stand behind new stations, saying they’ll be beneficial in the future.
“For us as a college, this is really an investment,” Molalenge said, adding that more people will be buying electric cars in the future. “We want to use this kind of technology because it provides learning for our students. … And also … whenever you put new initiatives on campus, it has the potential to influence attitudes and behavior regarding sustainability.”
Contact Candace Sipos at 574-6275 or csipos@dnronline.com