EWU installs electric vehicle charging stations

Eastern Washington University used the occasion of Earth Day on Friday to unveil its four new electric vehicle charging stations.

“We need to be moving this university ahead on a lot of sustainability issues,” said university President Mary Cullinan at a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the EWU visitor center, where two of the four stations are located.

The installations are part of the university’s commitment to cut greenhouse gases.

The other two units are outside the Computing and Engineering Building on the Cheney campus.

The university is charging electrical vehicle owners $1.25 an hour to occupy the parking slots in front of the charging stations. Only vehicles using the charging devices are allowed to park in those slots.

It takes four hours of charging to power an electric vehicle for 40 miles, the university said in a news release.

The stations are part of the U.S. Department of Energy workplace charging challenge.

The connections are Level 2 PowerPost stations that provide a low electrical current that is monitored by a meter. Telefonix Inc., of Waukegan, Illinois, is the vendor for the stations.

Level 2 is a midrange charging technology at up to 240 volts that provides safe and faster charging than home plug-in charging at 110 volts.

Mary Voves, vice president of business and finance, said the charging stations are just one of a number of sustainability measures at EWU:

The university is divesting its investment holdings in fossil fuel companies.

Its maintenance department is converting vehicles to hybrid or electrical power.

The university has a substantial water right historically, but the institution is taking steps to reduce irrigation by using drought-tolerant native plants in its landscaping.

New building projects have included excavation of irrigation wells that store winter rainfall for spring and summer irrigation. So far, the university has two irrigation wells.

The university has opened a new recycling center.

“Our goal is to be a zero-waste campus by 2020,” Voves said.