This week the city of Knoxville unveiled its first public charging station for electric vehicles (EVs). The EV project, a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Transportation and ECOtality North America will bring a total of 12 EV charging stations to Knoxville by the end of the year. The 240-volt chargers installed at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Knoxville allows EVs such as the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt to reach a full charge in four to eight hours.

As part of a first wave of nationwide infrastructure building for EVs, Tennessee has been selected as one of six test states; charging locations are being deployed for travel between the cities of Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville. In total, around 15,000 charging stations will be made available in 18 cities in five other states: California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas.

With the rollout of charging stations across the country, it is encouraging to see one of the barriers to widespread adoption of EVs being slowly, but surely removed. SACE supports EVs as a way to cut our dependence on foreign oil, reduce transportation sector emissions for healthier communities, and ultimately build out a clean grid so that fueling and operating EVs can happen with 100% clean energy.