County receives federal grant for electric vehicle charging stations

Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations have become more prominent in the county in recent years, and last week the county announced it has received funding for two or three new stations that are planned to be made available to the public.

Tompkins County chief sustainability officer Terry Carroll confirmed that the county will be receiving $128,000 to purchase solar-powered, portable charging stations that will be placed near county buildings to help EVs charge without impacting the power grid.

The money came as an earmarked grant coming from last year’s federal budget. New York U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillebrand were thanked by Carroll and the county for securing the funds to complete the project. He said in the next few months the county will have a more established timeline for where and when the stations will be.

Carroll said his goal is to have the stations installed and ready to use by the end of the year.

“Right now we’re looking at what opportunities we can supply for not only our fleet but for the greater community,” Carroll said. “We thank Sen. Schumer and Sen. Gillebrand for their support, they played a role in this as well, we couldn’t be more grateful to them for supporting this initiative for us.”

Carroll said the stations will take up the same amount of space as a parking space in a lot. The stations, known as EV Arch Stations, will be powered by solar panels and a backup battery.

The hope is that in a worse-case scenario situation of the local power grid going down, county vehicles will still be able to operate. He also said because the stations are portable, if the power goes out in a town in the county, they can take the station and allow residents the opportunity to charge their EV, computer, cell phone, etc.

“We’re really excited about this,” he said. “Our plan is to come up with a resiliency plan for how we would use these stations. The nice thing about them is that they are portable, so we can move them around.”

Carroll admitted that these solar-powered stations are more expensive, but thinks they will make up for the higher cost by not being connected to the power grid.

“They’re a cool, unique solution for charging stations,” he said. “They’re not connected to the grid so they’re their own operation. For us, there’s a lot of benefits when it comes to resiliency, so if the grid goes down, how are we able to supply our electric vehicles with the ability to charge?”

He said there is no decision on if the county will charge residents if they plug in their EV. Privately owned stations exist in the county, and to offset electric expenses or service costs, some stations charge a fee.

Any previous EV charging station purchased by the county has been used by only county vehicles, but Carroll said the hope is to have the stations available to the public during the day, while reserving the evening and overnight to charge county vehicles.

He said three locations are front-runners for the stations, but no final decision has been made yet. Outside of the Sheriff’s Department, located at 779 Warren Road in Ithaca, nearby at the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport and the county’s Public Works building located at 170 Bostwick Road in Ithaca.

“We’ll probably put them near some county buildings, because we see these stations as having a component with resiliency and trying to make sure that we can provide county services even if there were to be a major storm that took down the power grid, for instance,” he said. Maybe there could be one downtown, but  because they have the solar panels we need to make sure they have access to the sun.”

In 2021, New York Gov. Kathy Houchl signed a law that required all cars that are sold in the state to be electric by 2035.

Carroll said with the increase in electric vehicles coming to New York, he expects to see more stations popping up around Tompkins County and beyond.

“I think in general you’re going to see more and more charging stations, I think that’s an initiative for New York state and the federal government,” he said. “I’ve had conversations with different charging station companies, New York Power Authority and DEC about different charging stations being planned around Tompkins County and surrounding areas as well.”

He said that he doesn’t expect all the stations to be solar-powered and portable, but the convenience of not being connected to a power grid will be appealing to other counties, municipalities and private companies in the next few years.

Carroll also pointed to a state on the west coast as a good barometer for where New York could be by 2035 in terms of electric vehicle usage and charging stations.

The ones we’re getting are a little bit unique, they’re significantly more expensive than the typical charging station,” he said. “I think you’ll see some of them because they do provide that resiliency that is really hard to get otherwise, but what you’re more likely to see is charging stations that are paired with battery instead of solar, so if the grid went down there would be support with the battery. “

“We’ll see what happens, you can look at what’s happening in places like California to get a clue of what’s to come, because they’re a little further ahead in electric vehicle adoption.”