After inventing electric cars then killing them back in the day, bringing EVs back to life again then crushing them -- again --, then another renaissance, it seems that they are here to stay this time around.
But now that the cars are built, what's next? Infrastructure. Because if you have a Nissan Leaf and you want to see more than what's around your neighborhood in a 40 to 50 mile radius, you're going to need some help.
Currently, there are some projects going through testing. The first is a project we told you about earlier this year, known as Better Place. Its job was to investigate battery swapping.
Now the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Electric Power Research Institute are opening up a new prototype, public charging station that utilizes solar cells and batteries.
A transition to electric cars isn’t just a matter of the cars, but also of the infrastructure that goes with them, including public charging stations. The Electric Power Research Institute and the Tennessee Valley Authority plan to cut the ribbon on Tuesday on a prototype of a new kind of charging station, one that uses solar cells and batteries. But they do not work together in quite the way the public might expect.
The initial installation has six parking stalls, one of them extra wide for handicapped drivers, with carport roofs covered with solar panels. There are three refrigerator-size battery packs in a building that is heated and air-conditioned...
[Source: The New York Times]
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