39° CLEAR, Sonoma County offers free plug-in for electric cars
Last Modified: Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 7:34 a.m.
Drivers of electric cars running out of juice can now cruise by Sonoma County parking lots on Ventura Avenue, where six public charging stations for electric vehicles were unveiled Thursday.
“We are charging, guys!” said Supervisor Valerie Brown as she plugged a county electric vehicle into the silver stand that provides power.
Coulomb Technologies of Campbell installed the seven Sonoma County charging stations, which will be open to the public during the day and provide free power for electric vehicles for one year. County vehicles will charge at the stations at night.
The project was funded by Sonoma County. Officials have applied for additional grants to install a further 200 charging stations over the next two years.
A scanner reads a driver’s card that unlocks the faceplate to the electrical outlet. A year from now, a subscriber must have a monetary balance on the card to pay for the electricity. The account is accessed when a user taps their card against the scanner and plugs in their vehicle.
Sonoma County currently has seven electric vehicles in its fleet. Officials are anticipating having 20 more by the end of the year.
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