Alaska’s Capital (Juneau) Looking To Become EV Charging Station Capital Of US

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Alaska’s capital city of Juneau is now looking to become the EV charging capital of the US, according to a recent announcement from the city officials there. As of right now, there’s only one public electric vehicle charging station in the whole city, but by year end, it may have more charging stations per capita than anywhere else in the US — well, that’s the aim anyways.

Image Credit: Juneau Alaska via Flickr CC
Image Credit: Juneau Alaska via Flickr CC



The drive towards rapid EV charging infrastructure development is being spearheaded by the city’s Economic Development Commission — primarily because EVs are such a great fit for the city. The city possesses abundant renewable energy resources (hydroelectric), high fuel costs as a result of the isolated location, and reasonable electricity rates. And the city is also rather small. The main road spans less than 35 miles end to end — so no range anxiety. These are all factors that make EVs seem like a perfect fit for the city.

Autoblog Green has more details: “The city, which has a population of about 32,000, is ripe for plug-in vehicle adoption because of the relatively short distances that can be traveled by road from there as well as the fact that gas and diesel shipments to the area are as much as 20 percent more expensive than typical, pushing up gas prices. The city’s electric sources are largely hydroelectric, further boasting its green-cred potential. Already, Alaska Electric Light & Power has enacted an EV incentive program involving reduced electricity rates for car-charging.”

There are still some barriers to widespread EV adoption in the city, though — the primary of which is the lack of dealerships and technicians that are certified to work on plug-in vehicles. As it stands, there is only one dealership in the whole city that is certified to work on plug-ins. The only other options are to have cars shipped out and then back in for repairs — which is obviously rather expensive.


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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