You only have until Wednesd
ay (8/31) midnight to apply for a street side electric car charger at an electric pole near your house. City Light has funds to install 30 street side chargers in Seattle. They are now accepting applications but it closes on August 31. So you need to get moving right now.
The chargers are being installed on or near existing power poles. The charger would be a Level 2, which means you can get 30 miles of range for most cars in one hour of charging. It will cost you $0.20/kilowatt-hour. For most cars this would be what is needed for 3 miles of driving. This is almost 7 cents per mile. By comparison, a car that gets 30 miles per gallon from $4.25/gallon gas would cost a little more than 14 cents per mile. Installation and maintenance of the charging station will be fully paid for by City Light.
To be chosen for an installation at or near your house you need to have no off-street parking, including a driveway and you need to own or intend to buy an electric car. If you do not live on the side of the street with the power poles, you need to have permission of the property owner who lives where you want to have the charger installed.
You cannot restrict the space for charging to yourself but cars that are not electric are not allowed to park in the space at the charger. There are restrictions on where along the block the charger can be located. The details are available in a FAQ sheet from City Light.
You can obtain more information and make an application for an installation from a City Light website. Go to the bottom of the page under Project Documents to download the pdf’s with all the information. Remember, you need to file the application by midnight Wednesday.