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By KEVIN McCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Santa Rosa finally is ready to start charging people to charge their electric vehicles.
Electric charging station.
For $1 an hour, eco-conscious drivers of Nissan Leafs, Chevy Volts and similar vehicles soon will be able to plug in to some of the 13 charging stations the city installed in 2010.
The stations are a key component of the Sonoma County’s growing “Electric Trail,” which aims to create a regional network of public and private chargers that will encourage wider adoption of all-electric vehicles.
Santa Rosa’s 220-volt charging stations have been sitting idle while the city and manufacturer Coulomb Technologies hammered out a service contract.
Following the Santa Rosa City Council’s approval of the deal Tuesday, the stations should be on-line by the end of the month, said Jon Merian, the city’s fleet superintendent.
Under terms of the deal, Coulomb Technologies, the Campbell-based maker of the ChargePoint charging stations, will receive 50 cents for every session plus 7.5 percent of every total transaction, Merian explained.
The balance will go to the city, which installed the stations in 2010 with a $100,000 federal grant backed by stimulus funds.
That means for a typical four-hour charge, the driver will pay $4 and the city would receive $3.20. That’s more than enough to cover the city’s $1 electricity cost for a typical charge. The balance will be used for system maintenance and upgrades, Merian said.
The city also will pay a subscription fee of $230 per month per station. Ten of the 13 stations will be open to public use initially.
Sonoma County has 19 such stations but doesn’t charge the public to use them. Businesses like the Santa Rosa Plaza and Coddingtown mall also allow free use of their chargers.
But the city always planned to require people to pay for the privilege, Merian said. “We have to make it sustainable to cover the costs,” he said.
The system should pay for itself once each station averages 4 hours of charging per day, Merian said. Five stations are in downtown parking garages and two are outside City Hall. Others are in locations less frequented by the public, such as the city yard, city employee parking lots and the Laguna Treatment Plant.
The city has a couple of all-electric Ford pick-ups, but they’re not in service. The city plans to add all-electric vehicles to its fleet, Merian said.
The contract process took as long as it did for several reasons. Coulomb Technologies initially sent 110-volt chargers, which later needed to be upgraded to the faster 220-volt models. Then after two were installed, they had to be moved to comply with federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, Merian explained.
Drivers will be able to pay by credit card or ChargePoint cards. About 50 percent of EV drivers use ChargePoint accounts, according to the company. ChargePoint has a network of about 4,500 stations across the nation.
The technology allows drivers to check charging station locations, prices and other information on-line or though smart phone and navigation systems.
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Rio+20 documents say: ” We reaffirm our commitment to advance progress in implementation of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21, the programme for the further implementation of Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development….”, and they say: “Many governments now incorporate environmental and social issues into their economic policies, and have strengthened their commitment to sustainable development and the implementation of Agenda 21…”
So if anyone still thinks Agenda 21 is someone’s fantasy, look no further than the Rio+20 websites that clearly spell out exactly what agenda 21 is and how they plan to implement their action plan further.
The United States did not sign onto the Kyoto treaty but all four of the last American presidents did sign onto Agenda 21. The media tries to tie Rio+20 to Kyoto but it’s all about UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development. And if you think there are no mandates in their documents then I have some good swamp land I’d like to sell you. The media’s silence about agenda 21 is appalling. Why are they so afraid? Could it be that they’ve been lying about it for the last 20 years?
Follower is exactly right. Swap out batteries at already existing gas stations. Just pull into the slot for a minute or two, pay and off you go. Trying to put charging stations at homes and everywhere else is not cost efficient. Building a machine that changes out batteries quickly could be a great opportunity for some American entrepreneurs.
“The Rio+20 summit in Brazil from June 20-22 is expected to draw more than 50,000 participants from governments, companies and environmental and lobby groups.
It will try to hammer out sustainable development goals across seven core themes including food security, water and energy but is not expected to produce mandatory targets.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/01/us-rio-text-idUSBRE84011T20120501?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRolva/PZKXonjHpfsX67e0uUKGg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIHRcN0dvycMRAVFZl5nQhdDOWN
These 50,000 “environmentalists” flying to Rio will wipe out any “carbon savings” that Santa Rosa will generate in the next 25 years with its electric cars. The professional greenies will be partying on lobster, steak and booze in Rio like there’s no global warming while the amateur greenies drive around in government subsidized battery power mini cars pretending they are saving the world.
This should work out great for the two people that actually bought a Chevy Volt
Charging stations should also charge for parking. This should be figured into the cost of recharging. If the car is fully charged or not sucking electricity from the charging station, it should be ticketed as if the meter expired!
10 units initially, with a subscription fee of $230 per month per unit is $2,300. In a 31 day month, each unit has to have 7.42 hours of paid charging time at $1.00/hour every day of the month just to pay the subscrition. Then the $.80 fee paid per session to Coulomb Technologies kicks in, plus the $1.00 cost in electricity per session. This doesn’t seem to be a formula for the units making any money whatsoever. Who is going to park downtown for 4 hours at a time to get their vehicle charged? Since the 7.42 hours acccouts for the weekend days too, it won’t be people with jobs downtown. Perhaps someone in the financial office for the City of Santa Rosa can explain how this will work so we may all understand?
When my battery in my Smart Phone goes dead, I have a fully charged spare ready to swap out.
When my propane bottle is empty, I go to Home Depot & swap it for a full one.
Instead of having Charging Stations everywhere (that nobody will use) why not make ALL Electric cars use a standardized battery pack that can be swapped?
Instead of stopping for gas, you stop & have your dead battery pack swapped out for a full one.
THEN Electric cars could be viable.
Yes, I know… battery packs are expensive, large & heavy. But if it was designed right, it could be easily swapped out with a machine and if every gas station also stocked charged battery packs the price would go down dramatically.
A NASCAR crew can replace an entire engine in 10 min!
A battery pack designed to be swapped could be done in 1.
Short of some amazing new battery or motor technology, I don’t see ANY other way electric cars could ever be taken seriously.
We’re still authorized to sell two lines of electric vehicles.
The environmental impact of manufacturing the batteries combined with the price of these logistically challenged cars stopped making sense to me.
At one time I thought people would be so pissed at big oil (especially after the Gulf disaster) that they wouldn’t have to pencil out that well.
Having a 3 in front of the price for a full speed vehicle just feels like too much money to me.
I wanted one of the companies to make a good pick-up. Later a 4X4 with fun accessories. It would be cool to slowly drive down a country road without upetting any wildlife. Thought it would be handy for more than one purpose.
I love the concept of a ‘lil solar carport at home to charge at night.
As a second car to simply charge while sleeping and drive to work it can be OK for many people.
$10k of the price is for the lithium batteries that credible EVs have.
One of the reasons we’re in Afganistan is because it’s rich in lithium.
There is other affordable battery technology that has been purchased and horded by big oil after lying about their intentions to the inventors.
CNG, biodiesel, and technology concealed from us could be implemented right now.
Big oil/globalists (same thing) like the paradigm just the way it is.
Manipulating the supply/demand landscape to their liking as they do everything else.
Our ICLEI membership assures that our community is morphed to their ends as well.
I’ll keep my foot in the door ’till they make more sense.
For now it’s another way to keep us indoctrinated to contrived lack and ‘green’.
Green is just the guise, ’till we open our eyes.
Question: How come we don’t plant oxygenating air filters?
Answer: ‘Cause you can’t oppress people planting trees.
I’m sorry but electric cars are a scam. Yeah you get to drive very slowly for all of 10 minutes in a Toyota Prius. I’m serious, look at this.
http://www.boston.com/cars/newsandreviews/overdrive/2011/01/2012_toyota_prius_plug-in_review.html
It’s the 2012 Prius Plug In. 10 MINUTES! THAT IS IT! Well? What a scam that is, and you have to charge it up with a LEVEL 2 electrical outlet for 4 hours to get that lovely 10 minutes of driving!
All homes have a level 1 so that would be your overnight right there for your 10 mins of driving.
You couldn’t make it out of Healdsburg for that.
Isn’t that great. Santa Rosa has some electric charging stations for those thousands of electric cars we see rolling through the city day and night.
The only problem is the total cost of these electric, ecology friendly, and so not cost effective chargers will shortly belong in the museum of weird science.
They are another toy in the arsenal of the green religion. Imagine, would you buy a car that you can drive 35 miles and then park it and put a charger on it for 16 or 18 hours before you could use it again.
You couldn’t make it to Petaluma and back to Santa Rosa for a recharge in a day.
A recent survey said only 35% of buyers of hybrid cars would consider buying another one. Given the premium you pay for these cars its no wonder people are looking at cheaper, fuel efficient gas power cars that don’t have to be recharged for two work shifts.
Then there are the problems of repairs and who can perform them. Not to mention the trade in when the battery dies or the car becomes too small for you.
Hopefully Santa Rosa won’t spend millions of this laughable project. Especially since they have their little smart project and a road system designed to go to gravel and dirt. But given their green leaning, I am sure they will continue to spend tax monies on these fanicies.
“Really ? Were they that incompetent ? BOTH sides?”
Do we know which side order 110-volt chargers or selected the placement locations? It might very well be that the city chose both.
From the article –
“The contract process took as long as it did for several reasons. Coulomb Technologies initially sent 110-volt chargers, which later needed to be upgraded to the faster 220-volt models. Then after two were installed, they had to be moved to comply with federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, Merian explained. ”
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Really ? Were they that incompetent ? BOTH sides ? Wow, time to pad the ‘change order’ billing to milk more money. And the fee, $230 per unit– hmm, that is $2,300 off the total. Pay for itself ? What a joke, and we are the butt of their sick joke upon us !
The largest purchaser of toy..er..electric and hybrid vehicles is, of course, Big Govt.
Recent stats show over 60% of hybrid owners do not replace theirs with another hybrid, they buy real cars instead.
But take heart; you are still buying these jokemobiles, you just don’t get to drive them.
Gee I wonder where the charging stations are located?
Oh let me guess, conveniently located in front of every city building. This is done as a perk to the overpaid “managers” who will park all day and charge their EV’s while at the “office”.