We all know that a big issue for large-scale deployment of electric cars is large-scale deployment of electric car charging stations.
A couple of recent news stories I’ve read indicate that we may not have to wait too much longer to see this happen.
As Susan Kramer beautifully covered here on Cleantechnica yesterday, Envision Solar is debuting electric vehicle solar charging stations for the Chevy Volt today in San Diego.
Additionally, Chris Keenan of Green Building Elements, writing on GE’s upcoming electric car charging stations, recently wrote:
The GE WattStation will start appearing in cities in 2011, and can recharge an electric vehicle completely in 4 to 8 hours. You can effectively recharge your car while you are at work, running errands, out on lunch, or doing anything else you do while your car is parked.
While devices like the WattStation are still in early production stages, the possibilities for these devices are endless. To begin with, small efficient solar panels could eventually be utilized to provide power to the charging station, making for a truly off the grid automobile. What a difference this future image of “refueling” is compared to our current day greasy and noisy gas stations.
I also just read that Ecotality will be installing electric vehicle charging stations at 12 Best Buy stores in Arizona, California, and Washington in 2011.
Looks like there’s good progress on electric car charging stations and though I normally don’t really get excited about cars of any sort (I’m more of a high-speed rail and bicycle guy), this is all exciting news to me.
Have more news on electric car charging stations to share (especially solar-powered ones)? Drop a comment or a link (or a comment plus a link) below.
Related Stories:
1) 1st Solar-Powered Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station in NYC
2) Chicago Gets First Solar Powered EV Charging Station
Photo Credit: Todd Mecklem via flickr under a CC license
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