It seems like it should be a no-brainer for the utility companies that service Central Oregon to put together a similar program.  And an electrical vehicle charging station designed and built by students from Central Oregon Community College would be natural in an area where, according to the local tourism bureaus, the sun shines over 300 days a year.

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Lane Community College receives first EWEB Greenpower grant
Eugene Water & Electric Board Website – April 18, 2009

Lane Community College received a $100,000 grant from EWEB [Greenpower Grant Program] to build a solar-powered electric vehicle charging station for students and the community. EWEB’s Greenpower customers voted for the LCC project from among five local renewable energy and education projects.

The Greenpower grant will be combined with other funds to build the electric vehicle charging station. A grid of solar panels will be constructed, which will power 36 outlets to recharge plug-in electric or hybrid vehicles on the main LCC campus. Other funding will come from part of a recently passed LCC bond measure.

The LCC project will create opportunities for students to learn about how to install, repair and service the new solar array and vehicle charging station, will lower the community’s carbon footprint, will generate renewable energy, and will help the community learn more about the emerging technology of plug-in vehicles.

Coming soon to the Sunshine State: the sunshine city
By Michael Grunwald – Time Magazine – April 9, 2009

An NFL lineman turned visionary developer today is unveiling startlingly ambitious plans for a solar-powered city of tomorrow in southwest Florida’s outback, featuring the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant, a truly smart power grid, recharging stations for electric vehicles and a variety of other green innovations. The community of Babcock Ranch is designed to break new frontiers in sustainable development, quite a shift for a state that has never been sustainable, and lately hasn’t had much development.

“Some people think I got hit in the head a few too many times,” quips developer Syd Kitson, who spent six years in the trenches for the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys before entering the real estate business in the mid-1980s. “But I still believe deeply in Florida. And the time has come for something completely different.”

To anyone familiar with southern Florida’s planning-nightmare sprawl of golf courses, strip malls and cookie-cutter subdivisions named after the plants and animals they replaced, Kitson’s vision for his solar-powered, smart-growth, live-where-you-work city of 45,000 people east of Fort Myers is breathtakingly different. That’s why the press conference held today revealing his development plans for the historic Babcock Ranch property will feature representatives from the Audubon Society, the World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club.

The history of Florida is littered with spectacular, landscape-changing proposals that never made it past the drawing board. The watery wisp of Everglades National Park known as Flamingo, population zero, was once touted as the next Chicago. Kitson’s financial partner, Morgan Stanley, has had a rough time lately, and some locals remain skeptical that he can turn his $2 billion green vision into reality. “We’ve been hearing a lot of very exciting ideas, but we have no idea how this is actually going to happen,” says Conservancy of Southwest Florida CEO Andrew McElwaine.

Then again, Kitson has already cleared two of his most difficult hurdles: getting the land and the right to build on it. In 2006, he engineered a deal with then-Governor Jeb Bush and the previous owners of the 91,000-acre ranch in which the state spent $350 million to purchase 73,000 of the most environmentally sensitive acres – the largest preservation buy in Florida history. Kitson paid about about the same amount for the remaining 18,000 acres, and he says half of that will remain green space within the new community.

Kitson has been promising unprecedented sustainability all along, but today’s shocker was the announcement of Florida Power & Light’s plan to provide electricity for Babcock Ranch with a 75-megawatt photovoltaic plant nearly twice as big as the current record-holder in Germany. Solar power has been slow to catch on in the gas-powered Sunshine State, but FPL hopes to start construction on the 400-acre, $300 million plant by year’s end. The utility expects it will provide enough power for Babcock Ranch and beyond. At $4 million per megawatt – FPL estimates the costs to its customers at about 31 cents per month over the life of the project – it should be more than four times as cost-effective as the nuclear reactors FPL is trying to build near the Florida Keys.

Kitson’s slick website also promises “groundbreaking” strategies to promote energy efficiency for all Babcock Ranch buildings. And that’s not all: “Ultra-modern electric vehicles will glide along avenues beneath the glow of solar-powered street lamps, plugging in to recharge at convenient community-wide recharging stations. Revolutionary Smart Grid technologies will monitor and manage energy use, while Smart Home technology will allow residents to operate their homes at maximum efficiency.” Kitson’s goal is to reduce carbon emissions, oil dependence and energy bills, while turning Babcock Ranch into a mecca for clean-energy research and development, attracting high-tech companies that will provide high-wage jobs.

The idea is to create a self-contained community where people can live and shop and work and go to school and have fun without long car trips. Kitson’s construction plans start with a walkable and bikable downtown that will include a magnet school, a wellness facility and sustainable retail as well as 8,000 homes – including affordable homes for local workers. “In Florida, everyone has to drive everywhere they want to go,” Kitson says. “And everyone thinks the solution to congestion is to build more roads. I think the solution is to design communities so you don’t need more cars on the roads.”

Of course, talk is cheap. It’s no secret that growth has been Florida’s primary economic engine for decades. Yet Fortune 500 companies haven’t flocked to its sprawling bedroom communities with lousy schools and overpriced houses, and the paving of paradise has left the state with overtapped aquifers, overcrowded hospitals, overstretched services, traffic jams, a dying Everglades and a vanishing sense of place.

Kitson promises to avoid the mistakes of the past. “We’re impressed with their commitments,” says Wayne Daltry, Lee County’s director of smart growth. “Now we have to pound them to keep their commitments. No plan survives contact with reality – and in this case the reality is called the bottom line.”

Given the dismal state of the economy in Florida and the dismal environmental track record of developers, it’s easy to be skeptical. Kitson already had to lay off some of his southwest Florida staff. But unless the sun stops shining, the current housing collapse won’t last forever. Florida is always going to be nicer than Brooklyn or Cleveland in the winter. It’s about time someone tried to make growth environmentally and economically sustainable. And it’s about time someone tried to use that sunshine for something other than getting a tan.

Downtown Bend, the Old Mill District plus the retail business core of Juniper Ridge should have electric vehicle charging stations to help draw customers to their areas. Just like Lake Oswego.  “Mayor Judie Hammerstad expects more drivers from neighboring cities to visit Lake Oswego, plug in their vehicles to charge for free, and then hopefully drop their dollars shopping in nearby downtown businesses.”

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New age fill-up in Lake Oswego
by Yuxing Zheng, The Oregonian – September 22, 2008
[PHOTO HERE}
Portland General Electric unveiled four “filling stations of the future” today when it introduced its fleet of electric charging stations for plug-in vehicles.

Including one station introduced two months ago, the network of five stations in downtown Lake Oswego, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and PGE’s Salem and Portland offices will accommodate about a dozen vehicles.

Lake Oswego, one of the first municipalities outside Portland to own a station, hopes to use it as a futuristic economic boost.

As more families buy electric vehicles and the number of area charging stations remains low, Mayor Judie Hammerstad expects more drivers from neighboring cities to visit Lake Oswego, plug in their vehicles to charge for free, and then hopefully drop their dollars shopping in nearby downtown businesses.

“Most of all, it’s setting the stage for other cities,” Hammerstad said. “If we can do it, you can do it. This is a big step forward in sustainability and reducing carbon emissions.”

The new stations also come as car manufacturers, eager to cater to a growing number of environmentally conscious customers, are expected to introduce new electric vehicles in coming years.

“Oregonians are on the leading edge of all things green, and we expect Oregon will be one of the top markets for plug-in vehicles,” said Bill Nicholson, a vice president at PGE.

There are about 270 all-electric passenger cars registered in Oregon, state transportation officials say. That pales in comparison to 26,338 registered hybrid vehicles. And even those account for less than 1 percent of the state’s 3.3 million passenger cars.

PGE partners with local organizations or cities to pay for the electricity. The charging station itself costs about $2,500 and the station owner pays for its installation.

The city of Lake Oswego, for instance, paid for the $5,000 installation fee of its station.

Drivers simply park their cars and plug in their vehicles the same way household appliances plug into wall sockets.

“This is just the beginning,” Hammerstad said.

Plug-in hybrids (PHEV) are here to stay and more are on the way.  Currently most plug-in hybrids on the road today are production hybrids that had been “after-market” converted increasing the capacity of the vehicle’s original battery pack and adding an on-board AC-to-DC charger. But, by 2010 a number of automobile manufacturers will have factory designed plug-in hybrids for sale in their showrooms.

Portland’s program is one of several being developed to provide infrastructure for the advent of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, as new car companies like Tesla roll out their electric vehicles, and major manufacturers such as GM and Toyota get ready for widespread introduction of plug-ins.

Portland General Electric (PGE) & Toyota are placing 12 such stations designed and manufactured by Shorepower Technologies (formerly Shurepower) in the Portland Metropolitan Area. 

Why not make Juniper Ridge a gasoline station free zone and instead put 1-3 plug-in hybrid charging stations?

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PGE opens stations around Portland for plug-in hybrids
by Dylan Rivera, The Oregonian – July 30, 2008

What price is low enough to entice droves of Oregonians to fill up their cars with electricity generated by Northwest wind turbines rather than gasoline made from imported fossil fuels?

How about free — from drive-up stations across the metro area? That’s the strategy Portland General Electric launched Tuesday when it unveiled the first of a dozen plug-in vehicle-charging stations it will install through September.

The utility hopes the stations — about the size of parking meters, with a sleek blue and silver design — will encourage ownership of plug-in electric vehicles by offering visibility, convenience — and a hard-to-beat price. The free test period will continue for an undetermined time.

“It’s what we want to call the filling station of the future,” said Bill Nicholson, vice president of customers and economic development for PGE.

PGE and several major automakers are gearing up for what they consider the next generation of cars: gas-electric hybrids with plug-ins to use electricity to reduce gas consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. They think Portland, which has the nation’s highest ownership rate for the standard Toyota Prius hybrid, could be at the vanguard.

“Wouldn’t it be great to charge up your battery while you’re shopping or visiting OMSI, so the gas motor barely has to fire up?” Nicholson said. “That’s the concept with this next-generation car.”

But why go for a plug-in hybrid when 100 percent electric cars have been around for more than a decade? Because, industry observers say, such cars so far suffer from federal speed limits of 25 mph, high prices and technology glitches.

Gas-electric hybrids such as the Prius have caught on nationwide, offering performance and reliability comparable to that of standard gas-powered passenger cars. Fuel economy of up to 60 miles per gallon has drawn flocks of consumers, especially amid rising gasoline prices.

Only 268 all-electric passenger cars are registered in Oregon, state transportation officials say. But the state has 26,338 registered hybrids — still shy of 1percent of the state’s 3.3 million passenger cars.

Advocates of plug-in technology say a hybrid with a plug could be better than a standard hybrid. The plug-in cars could get better mileage — perhaps 100 miles or more a gallon. Consumers also may like knowing they can recharge with any standard 110-volt household electrical outlet and still have gas as backup power.

“When you’re all-electric, you’re very reliant on how far your car can go,” said Elizabeth Paul, project manager for PGE.

That makes the availability of electricity on the road a crucial consideration, Paul added.

PGE unveiled the first in its new fleet of charging stations Tuesday at its headquarters downtown. The company has offered a nondescript electrical outlet there since 1996; the new station comes with an 8-foot-tall stainless-steel design that will be replicated across the area. Shorepower Technologies, a startup with West Coast operations based in Portland, built the stations.

The stations cost about $2,000 each, and companies that host stations pay for equipment, any underground utility extensions — and the power bill for car users. Charging up a test Toyota model takes about three hours with a 110-volt outlet and uses as much electricity as running a large microwave for three hours. The stations offer 220-volt plugs that charge faster.

PGE passes all costs on to the stations’ host companies and buys renewable energy credits so that the stations sell power generated from wind, solar or hydroelectric sources, not coal. Even under those terms, local business interest in the project has been “overwhelming,” said PGE’s Nicholson, as companies look for a visible way to show a green ethic.

In coming years, PGE envisions charging electric cars, and potentially giving users discounts for those who charge during off-peak hours.

PGE touted its plans by presenting a test model of a plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius, one of only five in the nation.

In 2010, Toyota plans to sell a demonstration plug-in Prius to commercial fleets, said Chris Hostetter, group vice president with Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. Using a lithium-ion battery, the model could travel up to 10 miles at speeds up to 60 mph, all while using no gasoline.

With battery packs costing about $500 per mile of travel capacity, a 10-mile range could add about $5,000 to the cost of a Prius, Hostetter said.

“That’s what we’re researching now: How many miles do people really drive all electric?” he said. “How much convenience do they want? Do they want to go more miles with less trunk space but pay more?”