[Photo Credit: Borrego Solar]

California’s Santa Clara County gets a lot of sun. So it makes sense that Santa Clara County – as in the government of Santa Clara County – is linking EV charging to solar PV.

The county plans to provide 12 EV parking spaces at the Santa Clara County Civic Center employee parking lot, located at 950 North San Pedro Street in San Jose, Calif., for EV charging by both County employees and the public. The charging stations will sit under one of eight solar canopies that is part of a recently completed county 5.6 megawatt PV project.

PV returning power to grid
“Our solar panels are already returning power to the grid, now we can go a step further by using them to support public use of electric vehicles,”  explained Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese.

The charging stations are being provided by CarCharging, a Miami based provider of EV charging stations and services. They use dual-headed Coulomb units to provide 240 volts with 32 amps of power to quickly refuel an electric vehicle’s battery.

Drivers will have to register at CarCharging’s website to receive a small, keychain attachable account card for use at the chargers. The card also allows drivers to use any location on CarCharging’s network.

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