Vehicle-Charging Stations Power Up for Earth Day

Granada Garage gets the first of eight units in time for this weekend's green celebration in Santa Barbara

Electric-vehicle charging stations are up and running at the Granada Garage parking structure, 1221 Anacapa St. in Santa Barbara.
Electric-vehicle charging stations are up and running at the Granada Garage parking structure, 1221 Anacapa St. in Santa Barbara. (Giana Magnoli / Noozhawk photo)

By Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @magnoli | Published on 04.20.2012

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The City of Santa Barbara has installed electric-vehicle charging stations at the Granada Garage parking structure at 1221 Anacapa St. just in time for this weekend’s Earth Day Festival, and will offer free charging until July. 

Funded by an Energy Department grant, Coulomb Technologies is installing thousands of stations throughout the country to facilitate more use of electric vehicles.

Santa Barbara is getting eight stations between parking structures and lots at Helena Avenue, The Granada, the Central Library and the Santa Barbara Harbor as a pilot program, since electric-vehicle demand is expected to increase, according to Jim Dewey, the city’s facilities and energy director.

There will be a $2 hourly rate to start, down from the originally proposed $5 fee that would reportedly be a break-even rate for the city.

A percentage of the fee gets kicked back to Coulomb, and customers can use credit cards or ChargePoint cards.

Customers will still have to pay parking fees, which can be up to $20 on the weekends.

— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.

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» lou segal on 04.21.12 @ 08:52 AM

How much you want to bet that these things never get used. It is wonderful to know that the US Dept of Energy is spending our money so cavalierly.

» citizenSB on 04.21.12 @ 02:23 PM

Ventura is charging 50 cents an hour but SB needs 5 bucks to break even…
Some big overhead here is SB.

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