City To Pursue Charging Infrastructure Funds
Prince George, B.C.- The Provincial Government has announced it is giving a financial jolt to the Clean Energy Vehicle (CEV) Program with $2.74-million for the Community Charging Infrastructure Fund. That fund is set up to establish 570 public charging stations throughout the province.
The fund will be administered by the Fraser Basin Council . The City of Prince George will be looking to see if it can access some of those dollars. “We will be checking with the Fraser Basin Council to see if our plans would qualify for some funding” says Manager of Fleet Services Scott Bone.
The City is buying an electric vehicle later this year, (see previous story) and while it has plans to install two charging stations ( one at City Hall, the other at the 5th Avenue Parkade) the type the City plans to install would be the kind that would deliver a charge overnight. “The ones the Province is looking at would be Level 3 which deliver a charge much faster” says Bone, “But certainly we will be looking to see if we qualify for funding because we don’t want to miss that opportunity.”
While the Community Charging Infrastructure Fund is aimed at establishing charging stations in communities, the Province plans to have 27 Level 3 DC Fast Charging Stations installed throughout the province in the near future. These fast chargers will allow electric vehicle owners to recharge in approximately 15 to 20 minutes, and will extend the mobility options for these drivers.
Comments
It looks to me that you will need one station every mile between here and Vancouver. That`s what it will take to get any where in -35C weather.
$91,481.4815 That’s the cost per Fast Charge station!
A home charging station (slow, slow) costs about $2,200. One can not just plug an extension cord into an existing wall outlet in the garage!
Level 2 Equipment: Commercial-grade, public-access, 240 v, plus required utility upgrades and site improvements: $16,000 – $25,000.
DC Fast Chargers: Commercial-grade, public-access, DC- 480 v charging equipment, plus required utility upgrades and site improvements: $80,000 â $110,000.
Hybrid cars make way more sense! Some already achieve better than 4.5 liters per 100km. Toyota has the Hybrid Highlander, Camry, Prius, Prius V, Prius C…Honda has some hybrids too!
Didn’t they just announce an increase in the hydro rates?
How does this work when you plug in? Do you have to pay? Do you swipe your credit card and just sit there for 20 min to charge?
I missed the City purchase announcement…so what will the electric vehicle and the charging stations cost? Will they really save enough in the difference in the price of fuel (gas vs hydro) to make it worth while?
Goog Info PG. Guess I’ll stick with my gas guzzler with its 2.4 L engine.
Cheers
I think I will build a mobile charging station. Then when someone is dead on the side of the road I can drive out there in a one ton dually and fire up a diesel generator to charge thier “green” car ;-)
What about road tax and hey missing out on carbon tax? Oh and how is it clean energy? How does that hybrid save in gas considering its high cost and then there is battery replacement. Also in winter, which by the way lasts a while here in PG, mileage is nothing to yell about. But what ever makes one happy.
PFFT on the Hybrids. The 2012 VW Jetta TDI clean diesel get 40MPG in the city and 60MPG on the highway.
Why not the Chevy Volt? At least it’s a domestic car and you can plug it in to a 120V outlet to charge. Better to have a 240V outlet but it isn’t needed. Then the city could install these.
[url]http://cleantechnica.com/2010/10/19/envision-solar-to-debut-chevy-volt-charger-wednesday-in-san-diego/[url]
When the cars are all charged they could dump the power back on the grid!
“One can not just plug an extension cord into an existing wall outlet in the garage!”
Yes you can, as a matter of fact go to the Leaf website and click on the charging link. “so refueling is a easy as plugging in. You know, like your lamp, your blender, your cellphone……”
It does have a quick charge port though that only gives you 80% of a charge and is hard on the batteries.
Nissan claims it cost 3.00 to charge. I wonder what hydro rate they are using.
You did not look up the Home Charging site of the Nissan Leaf website. Although plugging in the cord into the charging station outlet is as easy as plugging in a blender etc, first of all you have to have something to plug into – A Nissan Leaf Home Charging Station, as a matter of fact!
“Home charging
meet the new filling station â the best place to charge your 100% electric Nissan LEAF is right here in your home. The Nissan home charging dock is built and installed by our partner Aero-vironment. Itâs compact, easy to set up, and itâs weatherproof, so it can be installed inside or out. Getting your home ready to charge is done in three simple steps: assessment, payment options and installation. Before you order your Nissan LEAF, youâll go on our website and make an appointment for an in-home electrical assessment. The assessment fee is $100. Note that this fee can later be applied to the cost of your charging dock. During your assessment, a certified electrician will visit your home, and determine the best way to install your charging dock.
Once youâve completed the assessment, itâs time to determine financing options for your charging dock. You can pay immediately with a credit card, or bundle the cost with your car loan. Once youâve determined financing, you can schedule the installation. On the day you choose, an electrician will visit your home and run a dedicated 240 volt circuit from your electrical panel to the garage. Then heâll mount the charging dock. Finally, the electrician will run diagnostic tests to make sure your dock is working properly.
Once he shows you how to use the system, youâre ready to start charging. Meanwhile the electrician will arrange a final inspection with the local code enforcement authority. And thatâs pretty much it. Your home is now ready for your new Nissan LEAF. And you can tell your neighbours that you have a filling station, right in your garage.”
————————————-
If you don’t get the above done you will have nothing to plug the plug into.
An opportunity for Tim Horton’s. Charge your car while waiting in the drive thru.
Electric cars……..a bunch of BS. Go back to the basics and calculate the electrical cost per KW and also the KW of energy per liter of gasoline.
Electrical power in this province is also generated by burning natural gas. So much for the zero emissions.
Just another way the city has thought up to waste taxpayers money. Never money for a referendum but always money for photo op spending.
Surprised the city did not opt for a small wood gasifier as attached to the cars in Europe during the second world war when gasoline and diesel were scarce. True biomass conversion to energy, better mileage, and of course carbon neutral. It would give the city incentive to mow the dandelions, and unkempt boulevards in order to provide biomass. Just think of the opportunities. Household garbage gasified in your vehicle. Everyone could down size the garbage can, the city could eliminate some garbage pickup, and if fuel ran low just drive to city hall and load up on the endless BS.
So what happened to all the ‘green’ technology associated with Natural Gas vehicles? Wasn’t that going to be the wave of the future too?
There used to be at least two natural gas filling stations here, one in Williams Lake and then several in the lower Mainland. Now there is only one here and possibly some in the LM. Oh, I think there was one in Terrace and Chetwynd too.
I remember Excel Trans. even tried a propane/diesel mixture.
If Rockerfeller hadn’t funded the temperance movement in the states, we would be still running our vehicles on alcohol, which was the original fuel of the Ford Model T. Farmers produced it on their farms, there was no need for the huge production of gasoline in the first place.
Maybe, rather than all these new fads, propane, natural gas, electricity, we should just go back to alcohol. Ever since diesel got so popular with pickups and smaller vehicles, the cost of that fuel has sky rocketed too. Same will happen to electricity. Maybe that’s one thing the so called “Smart Meters” are being installed for, to monitor vehicle charges and they will charge for that by making all electricity more expensive, so we lose either way.
interceptor: You’ve got the right idea there. You might need a diesel that really belches a lot of black smoke under load though, just to get your point across!!
PrinceGeorge: So the cost of the (one) little car is around $50.000.00, and if the Provincial Gov’t kicks in 50% of the cost of the fast charge station and the city wants to install two of these, that’s another $91,481.48.
$141,481.48 for one small vehicle that will probably usually carry just one person at a time around town but only when its available. (Not charging)
Make sense to me! Why not just call a cab?
PrinceGeroge, you don’t need the 240 Volt Charger. It’s a 2000.00 plus option. The 120Volt trickle charger comes with it. Yes it takes 20 hours to charge it but you don’t need the $2000.00 option. The $2000.00 option gets you charged in 7 hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoQqLlFMhU0&feature=player_embedded#!
The Chevy Volt would of been a better option in my opinion but more expensive. But not much more expensive, $41,000 VS $38,000. Atleast when the battery gets low the onboard generator kicks in. The Volt charges in 10 hours on 120V or 4 hours on 240V or 6 hours with that fancy sun tracking solar charger linked above. Oops I messed up the link so here it is again.
http://cleantechnica.com/2010/10/19/envision-solar-to-debut-chevy-volt-charger-wednesday-in-san-diego/
Volt info
http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car/
But with the Jetta getting 40MPG in the city and 60MPG on the highway and cheapest of them all at about $30,000 the city should of waited. Heck in 2013 there is going to be a Jetta Hybrid, I wonder what its fuel economy will be.
Hah the Chev Volt is dead they killed it again!
“So what happened to all the ‘green’ technology associated with Natural Gas vehicles? Wasn’t that going to be the wave of the future too?”
What happened to IBM386 computers?
http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/62525-chevy-volt-sales-surge-as-car-remains-political-pi-ata
It’s not dead yet!
“Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant greenhouse gas released by human activities and is emitted mostly from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Other greenhouse gases include methane and nitrous oxide.”
Natural Gas isn’t as clean as you think. But Fortis is claiming that the methane from landfills if carbon neutral. Not sure why they aren’t injecting this into the gas lines for free instead of the 5.00 per month they charge you if you sign up.
On that note the methane from the cities landfill is just burnt off. It should be used to generate electricity or sell it to Fortis.
“The strong dependence on internal properties indicates that emission of CO2 from natural sources, which accounts for 96 per cent of its overall emission, plays a major role in observed changes of CO2. Independent of human emission, this contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide is only marginally predictable and not controllable.”
http://judithcurry.com/2011/08/04/carbon-cycle-questions/
NoWay, you are correct, but who is going to trickle charge the thing and wait 20 hours for it to have a 100% charge?
Personally I think that the City’s electric car purchase idea is premature to say the least. The Volt is a hybrid in disguise. It has a range extending gasoline engine on board. It’s not 100% electric – the Leaf is!
I think that Nissan should have given a Leaf to UNBC if UNBC wants to do some research!
The City mandate is to run the city! Look at all the potholes and cracked roads everywhere! 100% attention and effort should be given to this mundane non-glamorous stuff, like decent roads, sidewalks, clean air, clean water, keeping the taxes in line and affordable, etc.
Why is the City spending money on such a dubious exercise as attempting to confirm that such a vehicle is not suitable for long northern winters?
Perhaps when gas stations see their gasoline business fall off dramatically they will install Fast Chargers for electric cars?
They have the dough and when they see another new trend and business opportunity they will go for it!
My goodness, it appears to me that we have too many city employees trying to find a way to justify their jobs.
It seems that as long as other levels of government are willing to pony up some $$$, we should make sure we get our share. Well, does any of them realize that it’s still all our money.
How can we break this cycle of spending? They are out of control. The silliness never ends. A $50,000 electric car with a limited amount of places to charge up. In Prince George no less. With all due respect, is anyone at city hall fiscally responsible?
The Volt is pure electric PinceGeorge with an onboard gas generator which charges the batteries when they get too low which in turn drives the wheels with the electric motor. Sure you can say it is running off of gas at that point but technically the gas motor only drives the generator not the wheels. But call it a hybrid if you like.
It’s called jumping on the green band wagon Chester which is a farce. I like the guy on youtube (Link to video in previous post)who tested the Leaf and left the heater off because he was afraid he wasn’t going to make it home. Did the city budget for a couple of tow trucks too to pull the things home?
Who ever in the city came up with this idea just wants a toy to play with at our expense. If they, city hall, wants to play with toys why not buy a pothole fixer and play with that. Makes a hell of a lot more sense. Is there any oversite on spending at city hall?
Can’t wait to see who is in the photo op when this expensive toy shows up.
The saga continues–even with a new mayor! Enjoy your 3 years Shari. Brian–stop voting yes to the BS.
Comments for this article are closed.