Hopkinton's Green Step For Mankind
Electric vehicles could be part of the answer for solving the nation's reliance on fossil fuels, but the market isn't quite there yet.
Though there have been technological improvements, the vehicles remain too expensive for many Americans, even with $4-per-gallon gasoline. And there are only so many charging stations.
Now there's one more, thanks to a partnership between the town of Hopkinton and local biotech Caliper Life Sciences, which was recently acquired by PerkinElmer.
Now they just need a few electric vehicles to come charge up. None had arrived as of Monday afternoon, said Aubrey Doyle, director of quality and facilities at PerkinElmer and also a member of the town's Sustainable Green Committee.
But Doyle said he's confident the cars will come as interest grows.
"It's kind of a chicken or the egg thing," he said. "You have to have some infrastructure there. I'll be curious to see how interest picks up."
A Business-Town Partnership
Town Engineer David Daltorio helped secure a state Department of Energy Resources grant to get the charging station, a first for Hopkinton.
The charging station grant was part of a $15-million American Reinvestment Act program in partnership with California-based Coulomb Technology's ChargePoint America network.
The program recently provided 30 EV charging stations in the Bay State, bringing the total to 80.
Other stations were installed in Marlborough, Milford and Foxborough. Worcester and Auburn also have stations. To find a charging station in the ChargePoint network, click here.
The stations can charge two cars simultaneously, which takes four to six hours.
Daltorio said there may not be many electric vehicles on the road in town yet, but green advocates are hoping the station will lead to more in the future.
"You've got to start somewhere I guess," Daltorio said. "It's a small step in a bigger direction."
Daltorio said Hopkinton was happy to find that Caliper was willing to host the station on its site. There weren't many ideal locations for the station on town property.
"It was more of a partnership where we could locate this somewhere as close to 495 as possible as well as for commuter traffic," he explained.
Doyle said the company is happy to help, and has also offered to pay for any electricity costs generated by the station for several years. The charging station adds to recycling and efficient lighting efforts at the facility, he said.
"The charging station is and available to anybody on a first-come, first-serve basis," he said.
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