Knoxville Gas Stations to Service Electric Cars

From KnoxNews...

Stations to plug electric vehicles
Project to provide sites in Knox area for drivers to charge cars
By Rebecca Ferrar

East Tennesseans driving electric cars will soon be able to charge up their vehicles at a network of 350 stations throughout the Knoxville area.

The publicly accessible electric vehicle (EV) charging stations will begin to open in September.

The project is being supported by the city of Knoxville, Knox County, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville Utilities Board and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The partners are part of an EV project involving ECOtality, Nissan North America and General Motors/Chevrolet that calls for the deployment of more than 8,000 new Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt electric vehicles and about 15,000 charging stations across the nation.

Through the EV project, Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga are all test markets for the Nissan LEAF and the charging stations, along with Washington, D.C., and cities in Oregon, Washington, Arizona and California.

ECOtality is a nonprofit renewable energy company that won a $115 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the EV program. The portion of funding designated for Tennessee has not yet been determined but will be driven by the number of cars sold and the installation costs of the stations, said Susanna Bass, the city's sustainability program manager.

"Owners of any of the new generation of electric vehicles can plug into the charging stations," Bass said.

Identifying locations for the 350 stations is expected to be completed in about a year, Bass said.

"We've been meeting frequently with project partners to think through the challenges and opportunities for electric vehicles in the Knoxville area and to identify places where the charging stations should go," Bass said.

Two pods of solar-powered stations, each containing five charging stations, will probably go in downtown Knoxville; officials are looking at Market Square and the Civic Coliseum and State Street garages.

The charging stations resemble small, box structures similar to gasoline pumps. Cars plug into them to recharge.

Most owners of the new cars will receive home charging stations to "fuel-up" at home, but a network of public stations will be needed to allow EV drivers more "flexibility and freedom," Bass said.

Bass said city officials have met with the Metropolitan Planning Commission, the Knoxville Police Department, the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition and the Knoxville Chamber to discuss possibilities regarding the new EV stations.

"Everyone is very excited to see electric vehicles come to Knoxville and happy to work together on this project," Bass said.

So far, the group has looked at more than 100 proposed locations for the charging stations in Knoxville, Knox County and surrounding counties, but no final decision has been made.

The first group of Nissan LEAF vehicles has been reserved and should arrive late this year. Nissan is taking orders for 2011.