In a function held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, both the lab officials and the industry have celebrated the installation of the 25th solar powered electric vehicle charging station. The current installations will add up to the six Electric Power Research Institute stations that were installed in Knoxville during early part of this year.
The project lead by the Department of Energy and industry partners such as the state of Tennessee, Knoxville Utilities Board, Nissan and a number of other cities proposed a total number of 125 solar powered vehicle charging stations for construction from Knoxville to Memphis, Tennessee. The Other 94 stations planned for installations are anticipated to be completed by the spring of 2012. In Tennessee, the power stations will be erected in the University of Tennessee, Nissan North America in Smyrna and Franklin, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga
A Model of Solar Powered Electric Vehicle Charging Station
ORNL has received around $6.8 million out of the total $99.8 million granted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to Ecotality North America for the project. During last year, the Vehicle Demonstration and Vehicle Infrastructure Evaluation project of DOE received an additional grant of $15 million and along with the matching investment from the partners the total project is valued around $230 million.
For the project ORNL will provide the services of its experts in grid, solar, transportation, materials for battery storage and power electronics, the other partners EPRI and Tennessee Valley Authority will bring in their range of expertise to strengthen the team.
The solar powered charging stations are anticipated to provide valuable input on the performance of the station, power charging preferences of the clients, reliability of the components utilized and its bearing on the power grid. It is expected that the increased visibility offered by the project will increase the awareness among consumers to opt for the purchase or lease of electric powered vehicles to cut down the demand for fossil fuels and bring down the release of carbon dioxide emissions.