Seattle is innovating a new way to supply EV drivers with charging stations. The utility company, Seattle City Light, is working to install EV charging stations on utility poles throughout the city. This program is to assist drivers who cannot access off-street parking. This includes homes that do not have driveways or garages to install their charging stations as well as multi-family dwellings who may not have charging stations at their facility. Residents can request to have charging stations where they live but they are still public charging stations. Even though they are the ones who requested the charging station, it is still first come, first-served. The charging stations will also cost $0.20 per kilowatt to charge from the Level 2 charger.

City Light will evaluate the requests to ensure they meet the guidelines to have a street EV charger on their utility pole. The person requesting must own, lease or be planning on owning or leasing a battery-electric vehicle. The city has not yet made the decision if those parking spots where the charging stations are installed will be reserved strictly for electric vehicles. Some residents are worried it may make parking along the streets more difficult and cause issues between neighbors. Similar to who will clear the snow out of parking spots with the charging stations.

The city of Seattle is setting climate change and electric charging goals for themselves for the next few years. They hope to reduce transportation emissions by 83% from their 2008 levels by 2030.

Click here to read the full article, originally posted June 20, 2022, by Clean Technica.