Largest public EV charging center in California opens in Santa Clara
21 April 2016
The largest public multi-standard electric vehicle charging facility in California officially opened in Santa Clara. The Santa Clara Electric Vehicle Charging Center, located at the city’s Tasman Parking Garage, features 48 Level 2 chargers and one DC Fast Charger.
Santa Clara’s municipal electric utility Silicon Valley Power (SVP) collaborated with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Joint Venture Silicon Valley, ChargePoint and MJR Electric to obtain a grant of $393,000 from the California Energy Commission to pay for the equipment and construction of the charging center. Santa Clara staff provided labor, and operational expenses of the facility are expected to be covered by usage fees from EV drivers.
The 6-story parking structure has a 370 kW photovoltaic installation, and uses battery technology from Green Charge Networks to help offset peak power demand with stored power to lower costs. While the solar power does not go directly to the charging stations, it does flow into the local SVP grid, which in turn provides the facility’s electricity.
Let's see. At max Level 2 rates (7.2 kW), the chargers are capable of fully charging a Leaf in 4 hours. It can be considered to have a capacity of roughly 48 vehicles per day, in addition to whatever the DC charger can handle. The cost is under $400,000.
48 vehicles per day is more than what we've been hearing about hydrogen stations with prices well over $1 million.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 23 April 2016 at 03:45 AM