Nissan recently announced it will build a solar-powered EV charging station at its offices in Franklin, Tenn. [Photo Credit: Nissan Motor Co.]

First, General Motors plugged its new EV, the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, into the sun, constructing an 18 kW solar-powered EV charging station at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant where it builds the Volt.

Now, Nissan, builder of the all-electric LEAF, is doing the same. It’s planning to construct a solar-powered EV charging station at its Nissan Americas headquarters in Franklin, Tenn.

The proposed 300-square-foot solar EV charging station will have room for 18 electric vehicles. As of now, there are electric charging stations at the Nissan Americas headquarters in Franklin, but none that use solar.

The station is expected to be online by September 2012, assuming the project gets final clearance from Franklin city planners.

“Ultimately, there will be a way that the public can use it,” John Harris, director of facilities, environmental and systems engineering at Nissan North America told the Tennessean.Com. “We don’t want to have our toys and not share them, if you will.”

The solar-powered EV charging station is part of a nationwide effort to build vehicle charging stations throughout the United States by next year. Nissan has been working with Tennesse Valley Authority (TVA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Electric Power Research Institute in Knoxville.

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