Electric vehicle charging station coming to Elkader
By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register
The non-profit Clayton County Energy District (CCED)—which prides itself on being socioeconomically and geographically inclusive, local and just—is on the verge of bringing an electric car charging station to the city of Elkader. The initiative, spearheaded by CCED, is part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to “positively affect the local economy by reducing energy costs,” and to slow the rate of climate change through not just green energy, but also through “wise energy use.”
Clayton County is also what CCED termed a “charging station desert,” and this is an attempt to start changing that perception. The change comes as the preponderance of electric vehicles (EV) is beginning to increase, and based on stats that suggest EVs will account for one-third of global auto sales by 2025, according to an article from AutoNews.com that was cited by CCED. The same article also stated that, by 2030, EV sales would outnumber those of traditional car sales.
There is change coming, and CCED believes it is prudent to be prepared.
“If we don’t begin to build the infrastructure, and if the projection that one-third of all auto sales will be electric by 2025 is true, the county could be left behind in the transition to clean energy,” said CCED Director Joleen Jansen.
A large part of this effort was driven by the fact Clayton County is a tourist destination. Without charging stations, there is the belief EV drivers will simply bypass the region. This is a way to lure them in to the small towns.
With this in mind, according to Jansen, the CCED “set out to establish EV charging infrastructure in five of the county’s tourist destinations including Elkader, McGregor, Marquette, Guttenberg and Strawberry Point. The locations of the electric vehicle charging stations are automatically populated onto the EV charging station maps such as the widely used PlugShare app and the Clayton County station listings will attract new visitors to Clayton County.”
The proposed location of the charging station in Elkader is the city lot near the utility pole close to FreedomBank.
As for costs, according to Jansen, the CCED secured a grant from the Upper Mississippi Gaming Corporation (UMGC), which covered the station cost for the five cities, including Elkader.
When it comes to what the city of Elkader paid for directly, that equals about $2,200 for installation, according to city administrator Jennifer Cowsert, since UMGC paid for the charging station and the first five years of fees. The hardware needed for the cellular internet connection is included in the purchase cost of the station. Those fees are estimated to be around $360 a year.
Cowsert added that she is looking into programs through Alliant Energy to help cover the cost of the installation and that the “charging unit comes with a one-year full warranty and five years of prepaid network services. The city should have no out-of-pocket cost after installation and the city was informed that there should be very minimal upkeep after installation.”
The station is expected to be installed within the next few weeks, but no hard timeline was available.
Some of the reasoning behind the charging station goes along with CCED’s mantra: “when we all spend less money on our utility bills, we have more for our pocketbooks and, in turn, create stronger communities.”
This is what CCED calls the “good news.” This good news seeks to undo the injustices of what Jansen claims are the “unjust structural aspects of the energy system that are weakening communities.”
The effort is an attempt to divest from being “captives of the monopoly energy system…[and]to achieve just solutions for communities,” Jansen wrote in a recent multi-part series published on Giving Compass.
Of course, some of the logic behind the project is the promotion of EVs. CCED cites the U.S. Department of Energy when mentioning several advantages of owning an EV. One of them is energy efficiency. While EVs convert 77 percent of the electrical energy from the grid to power at the wheels, conventional gasoline engines only convert 12 to 30 percent.
Second is that EVs are more environmentally friendly, emitting no tailpipe pollutants, while gasoline engines will emit 33 tons more carbon dioxide than the average EV.
Third, there are performance benefits, such as quieter motors and stronger acceleration. EVs generally require less maintenance than the internal combustion engine.
Finally, there is the notion that transition to EVs will dramatically reduce energy dependence, since electricity is a domestic energy source, while oil, for the most part, is imported from foreign counties.
CCED admitted there are also some disadvantages, such as the lack of range with EVs, as some can only travel about 100 miles on a full charge. Then there is the time to charge, which can take an hour to all day.
According to current numbers provided by Jansen, it will take the Blink IQ 200 series charger being installed around three to four hours to fully charge an EV. Responding to this lengthy wait time, Jansen suggested that, “while waiting to charge their electric vehicle, these visitors will likely explore the community by spending time and money shopping, dining and engaging in other entertainment and recreational opportunities.”
“These EV charging stations will strengthen our local tourism economy by exiting the EV charging desert and putting us on the charging maps. Across all sectors, we need to reduce the expense and the quantity of energy we consume. This leads to local wealth investment, reduced carbon emissions and, ultimately, strong communities,” Jansen added.
There are the benefits of “electrification,” which were used to promote the projects’ positives, such as Clayton County leading the way in clean energy prosperity and climate stewardship. Clean power generation is less expensive and cleaner, the cost to operate an electric vehicle is far less than a standard internal combustion engine and, of course, EV purchase prices are rapidly declining, making them more affordable and available.
In an interview, Elkader Mayor Josh Pope expressed support for the charging station, stating, “I thought this was a great idea. EV car owners can access a map that shows what communities have chargers and can plan their trip accordingly. Once here, it takes a couple of hours to charge so they can shop or eat downtown, go to our park, in general be exposed to Elkader. Then they may come back again and again.”
“The Clayton County Energy District dreamed this project into existence because it is consistent with our mission to strengthen our communities. We are implementers of the inclusive,” Jansen said.
