By Camden County Commissioner Jonathan Young, liaison to the Office of Sustainability
Recently, we joined officials from Collingswood to unveil the borough’s latest sustainability initiative – two public electric vehicle (EV) fast chargers.
The EV fast chargers, located in the North Atlantic Avenue parking lot steps away from the borough’s busy downtown, are ready for use and will aid in promoting sustainable transportation across the region. The two public fast-charging stations will also help to expand electric vehicle infrastructure, which is crucial in reaching New Jersey’s goal of having 330,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2025 and 100% clean energy by 2050.
The newest charging stations are now part of Camden County’s robust network of electric vehicle chargers strategically placed across the county. Electric vehicle charging stations are located also at the Camden County Boathouse at Cooper River, the Camden County Technical School in Gloucester Township, the South County Regional Branch Library in Winslow Township, the Bellmawr Branch Library and Camden County College’s Campuses in Gloucester Township, Cherry Hill and Camden City.
The EV chargers placed throughout Camden County are predominantly level two chargers, which is a 240-volt outlet and gives an average of 25 miles of range per hour. The fast chargers are the fastest electric car charging option, providing up to 250 miles of range per hour, depending on the car and charging equipment.
The project in Collingswood was made possible through the NJ Board of Public Utilities New Jersey Clean Energy Electric Vehicle Tourism Grant, the NJ Department of Environmental Protections It Pay$ to Plug In Grant, and additional grant funding from PSE&G.
In 2013, Camden County entered a pilot program as a cost-sharing agreement with ECOtality North America to install the countywide charging infrastructure. At the time the burgeoning market for electric vehicles was growing but still in its infancy stage. In less than 10 years the number of electric cars sold in the U.S. went from about 100,000 to 1.7 million. All of the county’s charging stations are on the U.S. Department of Energy’s website www.afdc.energy.gov/locator/stations/.
Traditional combustion engines are just continuing to deteriorate our air quality. In order for us to truly make progress when it comes to air quality and climate change, we will need to keep expanding our EVC networks for years to come until they are as ubiquitous as gas stations and the Board of Commissioners is committed to making this expansion a reality. The addition of these new fast chargers and the continual investment into this technology will only help bolster our mission of switching to clean energy here in New Jersey and allows us to continue exploring green energy options if we want to curb the effects of climate change and leave behind an inhabitable world for the generations to come.
For more information on Camden County, visit www.camdencounty.com. If you have any other questions about Camden County services, please call me at (856) 225-5562 or email me at jonathan.young@CamdenCounty.com.