Driving a greener future, The University of Toledo installed a half-dozen new electric vehicle charging stations across Main Campus to help the city and northwest Ohio make the transition toward transportation sustainability.

Since the publicly accessible ports went online in October in partnership with ParkUToledo, consumer use of the technology avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to planting 23 trees and letting them grow for 10 years.

Each charging station can power two vehicles at one time, totaling 12 new electric vehicle charging parking spaces at UToledo.

The campus charging infrastructure expansion was made possible, in part, by a $90,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

UToledo also contributed $18,000 from what’s called demand response revenue, a University energy savings program.

“Expansion of the number of charging stations available on our campuses is another indication of our commitment to sustainability,” said Jason Toth, senior associate vice president for administration. “We understand the global movement towards electric vehicles and want to be supportive of not only the campus community but also the community at large that will have access to utilize these stations.”

The six new dual-charging stations made by ChargePoint can fully charge a vehicle in approximately 4 hours.

Drivers of electric vehicles can download the ChargePoint app on the company’s website to use the fleet at a cost of $0.028 per minute and a $1.10 per hour parking fee.

The rates will be used to potentially add more electric vehicle charging stations as demand grows.

The spaces are available 24/7.

“These 12 EV charging spaces are an important step to reduce carbon emissions,” said Sherri Kaspar, executive director of ParkUToledo. “We look forward to the hopeful expansion of electric vehicle use on UToledo’s campus in the future.”

Locations of electric vehicle charging stations on Main Campus include:

• Four in Parking Area 20 in front of the Nitschke Technology Commercialization Complex;
• Four in Parking Area 2 at the intersection of North Towerview Boulevard and Bancroft;
• Two in Parking Area 31 by Plant Operations along Dorr Street; and
• Two in Parking Area 25 by Rocket Hall along Secor Road.

On Health Science Campus, an electric vehicle charging station has been in place since 2008 at the Facilities Support Building.