You’re probably already seeing many ads for electric vehicles (EVs), such as the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, on TV and online, and you may well be seeing some of these cars already on area roads. Many say that EVs are the “way of the future” when it comes to motor vehicle transportation, in Maryland and across the country.
But where are we now, and what will it take to turn this into a true “EV revolution,” with the vehicles, as well as places to charge/fuel them, available to a significant number of drivers?
The key is infrastructure, and for EVs, this means a solid network of charging stations — EV “gas stations.”
Initially, Home-Charged
The top range for most EVs currently on the market is about 100 miles on one charge, so for trips longer than that, drivers will need to know that they can recharge before running out of juice. It should be noted that a number of vehicles out there or on the way soon, including the Volt, the plug-in Toyota Prius hybrid and other “plug-in hybrids,” also can run on gasoline for some number of miles, so they also can take advantage of regular gas stations.
“Presently, we have about 100 new passenger EVs, Teslas, Volts and a couple of Leafs operating in Maryland,” said Jill Sorensen, executive director of the Baltimore-based Baltimore-Washington Electric Vehicle Initiative (BEVI). “We expect that number to jump to close to 30,000, and to exceed 100,000 for the Northern Virginia and D.C. areas by 2015.”
As for recharging these EVs, 80% of that initially is expected to occur at people’s homes, “where 110-volt outlets work just fine for overnight charging,” Sorensen added.
Although it appears that significant infrastructure development won’t be required immediately, as more EVs are added to the grid, charging capability will be strategically needed at places of employment and public places where people do more than just duck in for a quick purchase or errand, and for those who either do not have home charging options or need to re-fuel once they get to work.
‘Chicken-and-Egg Dilemma’
For starters, BEVI, in collaboration with the Maryland Energy Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy, EV-ready counties and other organizations, is working together to install more than 150 public charging stations distributed across the state, Sorensen said.
“I drove nearly 60 miles in my Volt recently without using an ounce of gas because I was able to plug into these public charging stations,” she added.
Many of these stations use EV chargers made by SemaConnect Inc., which is based in Annapolis. The coalition also is working closely with sister states in the Northeast Electric Transportation Corridor to assure reliable and lasting deployment of EVs throughout the region.
The state recognizes “that transitioning to clean transportation alternatives and reducing our dependence on petroleum is imperative,” Sorensen said. “We also realize that the opportunity to do this economically is here and growing.”
Nationally, EVs are being rolled out in 30 to 40 states, with about 12,000–13,000 EVs sold so far, said Paul Scott, founding board member of Plug-In America, a national EV advocacy organization based in California. But the infrastructure is taking shape “in fits and starts,” he said.
“The people buying now are mostly installing chargers in their homes, but as for charging stations out in the community, that’s going a little slower than we’d like,” said Scott. “There’s something of a chicken-and-egg dilemma at play: Some businesses are reluctant to give up a parking space, for example,” to install a charger, but the more chargers are installed, the more that will encourage consumers to buy EVs.
“As we get more EVs out there and the demand for them increases, I think business owners will be pushed to install more charging stations” to meet the growing demand, Scott predicted.
As for what businesses can do to promote EV use, that’s simple, he said: “They can install charging stations for EVs to encourage greater use, and there are federal programs to help with that.” For example, federal dollars are helping subsidize Coulomb Technologies to install some of its EV charging stations, he added.
Solar-Powered Cars?
Some companies, including at least two Maryland firms — Columbia-based Advanced Technology & Research Corp. (ATR) and Frederick-based TimberRock Energy Solutions Inc. — are trying to make the entire EV cycle as clean as possible by using solar energy to help power these low-emission vehicles.
“Using solar power to recharge an electric vehicle brings the process full-circle,” said Rob Lundahl, ATR’s vice president for energy systems and automation. “Not only do you get a vehicle that doesn’t need petroleum for locomotion, you also at least partly power it using renewable energy.”
ATR installed the first “tracking” solar car-charger in Maryland — it tracks the sun to produce more power than fixed panels do — in Bethesda in August and has plans to install several others in the Baltimore-Washington area.
TimberRock, in partnership with Gaithersburg-based Standard Solar Inc., installed solar EV charging station in October at General Motors’ Allison Transmission plant in White Marsh.
“Coupling employer and public charging places with renewable energy support like the ATR tracking solar car-charger will be the smartest investments,” Sorensen added. “Every piece of built architecture could be equipped with EV-charging capability, through [solar panels] or a simple 110-volt outlet.”
