It’s a pretty good news week for Western Michigan University: Just as the university announced that it had gotten a $100-million gift for its proposed medical school, news outlets were also buzzing about new electric-vehicle charging stations that had been set up on the campus. The announcement ceremony included a visit by a U.S. senator who would be one of the first people to use the stations.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat who had sponsored legislation that offers rebates to people who buy electric vehicles, drove up to the ceremony in a Chevrolet Volt. (She had borrowed it from an alumnus who had just bought the car. Electric vehicles owned by professors were on display, and the university owns a couple of electric vehicles, too.)
Use of the charging stations will be free to owners of a special card distributed by ChargePoint America, a division of Coulomb Technologies that is devoted to establishing an electric-vehicle infrastructure. A university spokeswoman did not know whether people would have to pay for that card, however.
“Much of the expected electricity use will be offset by WMU’s existing renewable-energy resources—a wind turbine on the Parkview Campus and a solar array atop Wood Hall on the main campus,” a university news release says. “If usage is more than expected, university officials will re-evaluate keeping the service free.”
It’s not clear how many drivers will actually plug in at the charging station. Such stations have been cited as symbolic gestures that convey a green image, but are actually rarely used.
Finding ways to maintain an automotive America has of course been an interest in Michigan, so a charging station like this might seem natural for this public university, no matter how much it’s used. But other colleges have also been interested in pushing electric vehicles for more sustainability-oriented reasons. For example, Portland State University and Lane Community College, both in Oregon, have been involved in electric-vehicle efforts.
