The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program announced a new grant last week for organizations interested in helping to expand direct current (DC) fast charging along California’s North-South highway corridors. Grant Funding Opportunity 15-601, “DC Fast Chargers for California’s North-South Corridor,” will offer up to $10 million for proposals that help to increase charging stations along I-5, Highway 101, and CA-99 from San Jose south. The final deadline to submit a funding application for GFO-15-601 is November 19th, and a pre-application workshop will be held by the California Energy Commission in Sacramento on August 7th. It can also be attended by web conference. Read more about the funding, application, and deadlines here, or visit the CEC Networking Hub on Linkedin for more resources on funding and partnership opportunities. See some of the other projects CEC has funded here.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) grant is meant to complete California’s portion of the West Coast Electric Highway, which extends from British Columbia to Baja California. Oregon completed its portion of the Electric Highway in March, having installed 44 DC chargers. Each charger cost about $100,000, and construction costs were subsidized with $910,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy and $3.34 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation. BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint have also recently announced a joint DC fast charge project with chargers at regular intervals along routes from both San Diego to Portland and Washington to Boston. It will add a total of about 100 privately funded DC fast chargers. The Electric Highway and the DC fast charge project should help alleviate electric vehicle “range anxiety” and increase consumer comfort with using electric vehicles for long distance trips as well as urban commutes.