Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Norwich — Hybrid gas-electric and all-electric vehicles are gaining popularity in Vermont and across the country, as we reported in today’s article about the Upper Valley Electric Vehicle Demo and Forum hosted last night at the Montshire Museum.
But whether commuting in the Upper Valley or planning a cross-country road trip, drivers of all-electric vehicles — that is, vehicles that use no gasoline and rely entirely on energy from a battery — need to consider when and where they’ll find their next charge.
Dave Roberts, coordinator of an electric vehicle advocacy coalition called Drive Electric Vermont, said there are several resources available for electric vehicle drivers to map out their next charge. The coalition, for example, has a map of public charging stations throughout the state, including two in the Upper Valley, at King Arthur Flour in Norwich and Vermont Law School in South Royalton.
An even more thorough map is available through the website PlugShare. In addition to public stations, PlugShare maps out the addresses of residents who own chargers and are willing to let electric vehicle owners charge up at their homes in a pinch.
(A screenshot of the website is shown in the second photo at the top of this blog post. The first photo shows Hartland resident Karl Kemnitzer's solar-powered electric cargo bike being used at the forum; read more about Kemnitzer's projects here.)
The PlugShare map is sparsely dotted on the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley, but shows more options available on the Green Mountain side of the river.
Several smartphone apps are also available for mapping charge stations (scroll down to "charging infrastructure apps.")
Roberts acknowledged that increasing the number of charging stations is a key component of bringing electric vehicles into the mainstream.
“We have a pretty robust system here in Vermont, but we recognize that we still have some gaps,” he said.
The Drive Electric Vermont website contains many of the charts, graphs and other information that Roberts used during his presentation. More information can be obtained through the Sustainable Energy Resource Group and the Upper Valley Sierra Club, the two organizations that put on the forum.
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Posted to the Upper Valley Dispatch blog Friday at 2:50 p.m. Follow the Valley News on Twitter @VNewsUV.