CEC helped cut the ribbon on 6 new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Solvang, along with the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, City of Solvang, and County of Santa Barbara representatives.

These are the first of dozens of stations being constructed throughout Santa Barbara County as part of Coulomb Technologies’ ChargePoint America program. Funding for the stations comes from the Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission, and private sources.

CEC played a major role extending this program to the Santa Barbara/Ventura area as well as identifying and coordinating sites with local partners.

These new charging stations charge at 240 volts, twice to four times as fast as a 120 volt outlet. The stations allow pure EV owners (like the Nissan LEAF, and the upcoming Mitsubishi I, Ford Focus EV, and Tesla Model S) the opportunity to “top-off” thus extending the places they can visit. They also allow plug in hybrid drivers (like the Chevy Volt, and the upcoming Toyota Plug in Prius) the opportunity to charge up and travel more miles on electricity instead of gasoline.

There are 3 charging locations now active in Solvang, each with 2 charging ports, for a total of 6 charging stations—all open 24/7:

• Veterans Memorial Hall Parking Lot at 1745 Mission Drive
• City Parking Lot 1 at 1576 Mission Drive
• City Parking Lot 3 at 482 Alisal Road

Parking is free in Solvang’s public parking lots and the City of Solvang currently charges $1.25/hour to use the stations.

Soon, the County of Santa Barbara will greatly expand this network, installing 18 charging stations at 9 County owned sites in Santa Maria, Lompoc, Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria. Cities in San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties have also added charging stations in recent months to join the hundreds of public stations that are now available throughout California.

CEC welcomes these charging stations to our region, and excitedly awaits the dozens of more coming on line soon.

 

Press coverage

KEYT [Video Clip]

Santa Maria Times Article

Santa Barbara News Press Article (PDF)

 

Benefits of EVs

EVs provide significant environmental and societal benefits to EV drivers, such as:

• New electric cars achieve around 100 mpg equivalent, according to their EPA labels. Electric motors are 3 times more efficient than gasoline motors, with little waste heat, noise, or emissions.
• EVs produce zero tailpipe emissions, benefitting society with cleaner air.
• EVs reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 75% in California, as our grid is very clean, with very little coal. We currently get 20% of our electricity from renewable energy, and this is mandated to increase to 33% by 2020. Thus EVs get cleaner as they age, unlike gasoline cars, which get dirtier.
• EV owners can charge up for $1/gallon equivalent if they take advantage of cheap, off peak nighttime charging. The money saved can be spent on local goods and services, instead of going to foreign countries.
• EVs and solar panels go great together. 2 kW of solar allows an EV driver to “drive on sunshine” for 12,000 miles per year. 2 kW of solar currently costs around $7,000-8,000 after incentives – much cheaper than paying for 25 years of gasoline!
• EVs are very fun to drive, with lots of torque right off the line.

Join CEC at workshops for prospective electric vehicle (EV) owners, with info about rebates, home charging units, and public fast-charging stations. The workshops will also include test drives and a conversation with current EV owners. Come to one of the workshops to learn one of these vehicles might work for you, or pass this announcement along to friends that might be considering a new car.

Free lunch is included but requires an RSVP.  RSVP today >

Santa Barbara Workshop

Saturday, January 28, 2012 | 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Santa Barbara MTD | 550 Olive St. | Santa Barbara, CA 93101
More event information...

Camarillo Workshop

Sunday, January 29, 2012 | 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Pleasant Valley School District Auditorium, 2222 E Ventura Blvd., Camarillo, CA 93010
More event information...

 

Why is CEC so interested in electric vehicles?

These revolutionary new vehicles are not only fun to drive, but they achieve approximately 100 mpg equivalent, produce zero tailpipe emissions, and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75% (or 100% if you plug in to rooftop solar panels). By the end of this year, there will be a dozen new models of EVs of all shapes and sizes on the market.

The Community Environmental Council (CEC) is a small and dedicated non-profit with a very big mission: ending the Santa Barbara region’s dependence on fossil fuels in one generation. It's been a busy year for CEC. After all, moving our region off fossil fuels is no small task. Check out this infographic of our most impressive accomplishments from 2011.

Thank you to everyone who helped us this year: donors, green-minded businesses, Solarize SB participants, Facebook fans, Earth Day attendees...  you all help power the clean energy movement in Santa Barbara. Consider giving back by making a donation to CEC this year.

Share this infographic on Facebook and Twitter.

Click the image for a full size version.

Share this infographic on Facebook and Twitter.

Back in August, we reported that Coulomb Technologies would be installing 50 new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Santa Barbara as part of the ChargePoint America program. This week, CEC learned that we can expect even more charging stations throughout our region thanks to a similar project overseen by Ecotality, which recently expanded its efforts to include the Santa Barbara and Ventura regions. The EV Project is a $230 million public-private partnership that aims to put 14,000 EV charging stations across America. CEC is now working with them to identify appropriate locations on the South Coast.

Why electric?

CEC is excited about electric vehicles because they offer revolutionary, not incremental, benefits compared to gasoline cars. They get around 100 mpg equivalent, produce zero tailpipe emissions, and reduce greenhouse gases by 75% on California's green grid. Installing public charging stations for electric vehicles makes it easier to drive electric. Read more about CEC's efforts >

How you can help

CEC is working with Ecotality to help identify locations to install these charging stations in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. An ideal spot would be accessible to the public – such as a business, workplace, or hotel. It helps if you are the owner, an employee, or a loyal customer who can help champion the process. If you know of a good location, please contact CEC's Transportation Specialist, Michael Chiacos at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Electric cars get 100 mpg equivalent, produce zero tailpipe emissions, and reduce carbon pollution by 75% on California's green electric grid. Many Santa Barbarans are buying electric cars and we're starting to see a Volt or Leaf on the road almost every day. Since more public charging stations will make it easier to drive electric, CEC has been working to bring stations to our region.

Since we last wrote about this project in May 2011 we have some exciting news.

Coulomb Technologies -- a leading provider of electric vehicle charging stations -- has doubled the number of universal charging stations that it is looking to install in Santa Barbara County, from 25 to 50.

It has also expanded the scope of the program to include North County, and we are working with partners to place 100 stations in Ventura County.

Over the last 2 months, CEC has been helping Coulomb review potential locations for the charging stations, throughout Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, Solvang, Santa Maria, and Lompoc. The next step will be to determine the top 50 sites based on highest potential use, lowest installation cost, and geographic distribution throughout the county. We are hoping the first stations will be installed and open to the public this fall.

The charging stations are being installed for free as part of the ChargePoint America program, a public-private $37 million partnership to put in 4,600 charging stations in key cities across America by the end of 2011. In our county, installing a new 240 volt charging station built in a parking area that was designed with EVs in mind – such as the Granada Garage or Isla Vista's new solar carport parking lot – could be as inexpensive as $1,500. In other sites where service upgrades, new panels, trenching, or other retrofits are needed, the price could be as high as $15,000. This highlights the advantage of "pre-wiring" for EVs during new construction or renovations.

Santa Barbara has been identified as one of the top four early-adopter markets for electric vehicles in Southern California. Earlier this year, major car manufacturers began offering fully-functional models such as the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt, and about a dozen models will likely be available next year.

Learn more:

• Visit www.PlugInSB.org
• Follow our updates on Facebook
• Subscribe to our blog to get CEC updates delivered to your email.

Great news for electric vehicle (EV) owners and prospective owners on the South Coast - Coulomb Technologies, a leading provider of electric vehicle charging stations, is providing 25 (or more) charging stations to Santa Barbara County.  As the first universal charging stations in our region, they will make it easier to drive an EV. Since Santa Barbara is a large early-adopter market, many of our residents are already driving the Nissan LEAF, Chevy Volt, or will soon be driving some of the 12 EVs due on the market next year.

The new stations will be open to the public and strategically placed throughout the region, clustered in the areas of highest potential use, like downtown public parking lots. They are offered as Coulomb expands its ChargePoint America program, a public-private $37 million partnership to install 4,600 charging stations in key cities across America by the end of 2011.

Electric vehicles are a major component of CEC’s Fossil Free by ‘33 vision because they get around 100mpg equivalent and run on electricity instead of oil.

California is an exceptional place to leverage the benefits of EVs because our SoCal Edison grid already contains almost 20% renewable energy.

This will increase to 33% by 2020, so EVs actually get cleaner as they age. Due to California's cleaner grid, an EV here emits around 75% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a comparable gasoline car. An added bonus - residents with solar panels on their roof can take it a step further by charging their electric vehicle at home. This means they're driving on sunshine!

Want to know more?

CEC leads Plug in Santa Barbara, a group of cities, businesses, utilities and others working to build charging stations and make it easier to use EVs.  In fact, this group was essential in attracting these charging stations to Santa Barbara. Learn more at www.PluginSB.org and "like" us on Facebook to get the latest news.