Hawaii, following in the footsteps of the San Francisco Bay Area, is partnering with California-based Better Place, to create the nation’s first statewide network of electric charging stations. Between 50,000 and 100,000 stations -- where drivers may charge or swap their batteries -- are expected to dot Hawaii’s parking lots, downtown streets and neighborhoods by 2012.
Better Place has already signed agreements with with Denmark, Israel and Australia to create electric car recharging grids. In this way, the company is essentially creating a utility model, where it provides electricity and batteries for cars, in the same way that gas stations have provided fuel and oil to traditional cars.
Hawaii's governor Linda Tingle told the Washington Post "This is the preferred future. Today is a part of the execution of our energy independence, and our getting off the addiction to oil." She expects this plan to help the state achieve its goal of reducing fossil fuel consumption 70 percent by 2030. The state currently imports oil for 90 percent of its energy needs.
Shai Agassi, Better Place founder and CEO, says Hawaii is an ideal place to unveil a statewide plan for plug-in charging stations because of its strong tourism industry.
"If we can get [tourists] into electric cars when they rent, we do two great things," Agassi told the Post. "One, we avoid emissions and, two, we use the opportunity to educate them, to teach them in Hawaii how it needs to be done in the rest of the world."
Source: The Washington Post
Elli A. says:
One weak part of this plan is who will make the cars. They rely on auto makers that are one leg in the grave. In Denmark and Israel they have a deal with Renault, which already has a strong base in those markets. Even in those countries there will be little selection for the consumer as things look now. Many people would much prefer if they could by a Nissan instead of Renault (I would). Hawaii may not be a big enough market to justify R&D, even though converting a car to all electric is not really rocket science, especially when Better Place provides most of the components of the electric system. Renault will just use one of their standard family cars with a different power train.
The system is ideal for Hawaii in many aspects. Like Denmark they have over capacity of electricity production at night from wind farms. Actually in Denmark their big partner is the utility that owns the wind farms. They can't sell that electricity at night and it goes nowhere (since there is no practical way to store it). This means the ROI of the windmills is much lower when they produce power that cannot be sold. The cars that charge at night are a way to store this capacity and use it during day time. An army of small batteries.
This is a landmark action. It is the first American state that has a statewide plan to make electric vehicles a viable alternative with short deadlines. I hope Hawaii can execute their plans faster than the Bay Area can build a bridge from San Francisco to Oakland.