Just in time for Argonne’s Earth Week celebration, four new electric-vehicle charging points have been installed near Building 212.
The new charging stations were designed at Argonne. They not only recharge a vehicle’s battery, they monitor its status along with power, energy and time of use and report that information to a central database. This data will be used for future research involving electric vehicles.
With these new stations, there are now a total of 30 charging points at Argonne, with more planned for Building 450 and the Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility. Employees can charge their personal vehicles while the stations are unused during the day through the workplace charging program. Enrollment in the program is required and there is a monthly fee for use of the charging station.
The Building 212 charging facility includes a solar panel that can provide enough power to charge four electric vehicles at the same time. Any electricity not being used for charging can be returned to the building for use.