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Email Address | Department |
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City of Santa Cruz | |
UCSC | |
UCSC GreenWharf Projects | |
IDEASS program | |
Hartnell Community College | |
The overall purpose of this project is to install a plug-in electric vehicle charging station on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. The objective of this project is to draw residents and visitors that own electric vehicles to the Wharf by making charging accessible and convenient. Plug in electric vehicle owners will be able to charge their electric vehicles while exploring the marine environment and business offerings. Ideally, this audience will also be aware of and interested in the upcoming EcoTour (to be launched in the Spring 2012), which will feature environmental research and sustainability initiatives at the Wharf, including the EV charging station. The City of Santa Cruz will be offering free charging for the first year of the Plug In Electric Vehicle program. Other charging stations are being installed in the City currently and our project will use the experience gained from the first round of installations to inform our project in terms of technical integration as well as installation and cost efficiency.
The key components of the EV charging station include a single or dual outlet smart station, site preparation work required to install the station, installation, and signage at the station. Another key component is the labor required to technically design (civil and electrical engineering), permit (project coordinator) and install (approved electrical contractor) the charging station. The monitoring feature of the EV charging station will become a part of the Coastal Energy Research Facility (CERF) – a past recipient of a Carbon Fund award- education programming, where applied sustainability curriculum will be developed around the monitoring parameters. Clearly, good communication and planning are required for this project to succeed. We have laid the foundation for the project by reaching out to other community groups such as the Monterey Bay Electric Vehicle Alliance (MBEVA) and the local electrician’s union (IBEW Local 234) for consultation on procurement, other funding, and installation. To promote the project, the EV charging station location will become part of MBEVA’s online spatial database, which will be linked to the City and CERF project websites—as well as other online charging station websites.
Monitoring of key parameters associated with the EV charging station such as usage time and energy consumption is integral to the station’s controller. This data will be accessible in realtime at the CERF website (www.greenwharf.org) for educational programming usage and for tracking GHGs (discounting the penalty of using electricity from the grid to charge EVs). Since the project is to be installed in the spring of 2012, IDEASS students will be begin monitoring and tracking that quarter upon installation, but community college students from Cabrillo and Hartnell that are enrolled in sustainable engineering programs will take monitoring and tracking for the summer, as part of the curriculum built around this unit. The next round of IDEASS student interns will then be given the opportunity to continue the project during the 2012-2013 school year. Monitoring and tracking will take place during the first year of operation and a summary report will be generated and submitted to the City and Carbon Fund. Concurrently, the CERF team will be evaluating the possibility of integrating the ZEV charging station with its renewable energy testbed facility as both projects are co-located at the Wharf Headquarters Building.
In providing one to two parking spaces at the Wharf dedicated to EV charging, the City of Santa Cruz will effectively eliminate almost all of the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) associated with one to two combustion engine vehicles. In doing so, the City is demonstrating a commitment to achieve their climate action goal to reduce GHGs 30% by 2020 from a 1990 baseline. The project will also create a marginal improvement in air quality at the Wharf, and when aggregated with other GHG reduction interventions at this location, has the potential to decrease health impacts related to air quality. Cumulative reduction of GHG emissions on a macro scale will mitigate future impacts associated climate change such as sea level rise and increased global temperatures. These impacts have the potential to create societal vulnerability in terms of damages to infrastructure, health and livelihoods.
Not Provided
Installed in 2013. Replaced in 2014 (due to retractable cord malfunction) with City funds.
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