Electric vehicle drivers will have a convenient place to charge in downtown State College starting next week.
The borough has installed six ChargePoint level 2 universal electric vehicle charging stations in the Beaver Avenue Parking Garage, 200 W. Beaver Ave.. There are more than a dozen charging station areas in the Centre Region, according to pluginamerica.org, but these will be the first publicly accessible ones in the heart of downtown State College.
The new charging stations, located on the first level of the garage, will be available beginning Monday.
Users will need to download the ChargePoint app and create an account. The app allows users to find local charging stations and receive notifications when their vehicles have finished charging.
State College’s Parking Department and Sustainability Committee received a grant from Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection to cover the $30,000 total cost of the charging stations. Borough spokesman Douglas Shontz said the cost includes the stations and a three-year software and hardware warranty.
Whether more charging stations will be added on borough properties in the future is still to be determined.
‘The Borough will continue to evaluate the need to implement additional charging stations and base this need on the usage of the stations installed at Beaver Ave. Garage,’ Shontz said.
Nearby in the downtown, Days Inn on Pugh Street installed Tesla and GE charging stations for guests in 2017. On the Penn State campus, three ChargePoint stations were added to the Nittany Parking Deck in 2018. Around the Centre Region, other charging stations are available at various businesses and hotels.
Bellefonte Borough also recently added charging stations to the municipal parking lots on West High Street across from Talleyrand Park and West Howard Street behind First National Bank.
