by Brianna Crandall — April 22, 2011—As part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to reduce U.S. oil imports by one-third by 2025, the Department of Energy announced on April 19 new steps to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles.
The steps include the availability of $5 million in new funding for community-based efforts to deploy electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and charging stations. Under the Funding Opportunity “DE-FOA-0000451 Clean Cities FY 2011 FOA,” local governments and private companies will partner to apply for funding to help accelerate installation of electric vehicle charging stations and infrastructure.
In a related effort, DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is joining with Google Inc. and more than 80 EV stakeholders to provide consumers with consistent, up-to-date information about the EV charging stations in communities nationwide. Drawing on Google Maps, this new collaboration will coordinate an online network of all U.S. charging stations and will serve as the primary data source for GPS and mapping services tracking electric vehicle charging locations. More information is available on the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center (AFDC).
