Category: Featured Plug In Site

Four public electric vehicle charging stations opened in Lewes, Delaware on July 10, 2017. The city of Lewes teamed up with a private businessman to install the EV charging stations at two public parking areas in an effort to promote clean transportation and attract electric car drivers into town.

We happened to be traveling in the area when we got word that the stations had been turned on earlier in the day. Even though we were already 25 miles past the town driving toward home, we decided to make a U-turn and head to Lewes to check them out. One meter was still at zero and the other site only had 2 kWh registered when we plugged in. We decided to have dinner at the Pig and Publican restaurant which serves fantastic Belgian food. It is easy to walk the town from either charging location.

Paul Evalds, the owner of Avatar Instruments and a Tesla Model S driver, provided the charging stations and the Lewes Board of Public Works installed the equipment at an estimated cost of $6,000. The four charging stations are located in a city parking lot on Schley Ave. and at Otis Smith Park on Savannah Rd. Each location has one Tesla-specific charging connector and one universal charging connector that will fit any electric car. The stations will be free for the public to use, with the initial electricity cost covered by a grant from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

Now that we know that we can charge while we visit, we will certainly be going back soon to explore more of the town of Lewes.

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Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA now has four EV charging ports in the parking lot at College Square. The two dual-port Schneider Electric charging stations were installed in April by MTV Solar of Berkley Springs, WV.

The EV charging stations are close to restaurants and other activity centers and are open to the public and are free to use.

Construction has begun on a Tesla Supercharging Station at the Sheetz at the Breezewood Interchange of I-76 and I-70 in Pennsylvania. There appears to be eight stalls going in there.
This will be a welcome addition to relieve some of the congestion at the six-stall Somerset Supercharger which was almost full when I used it on Memorial Day afternoon.

The Breezewood Supercharger is also well-placed for Tesla drivers wishing to travel the more scenic and leisurely Rt. 30 and the Old Lincoln Highway.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s the day for wearing green, eating corned beef and cabbage and drinking green beer.  In that spirit, here are some of my favorite green-colored Plug In Sites.

Above is a photo of the five ChargePoint stations in the garage at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve. These are some of the first public charging stations installed in Maryland in early 2012. At first there was a chronic problem with gas vehicles ICEing the charging spots. The hotel management was very eager to solve the problem. They tried painting green stripes on the floor and green text on the wall that read, “ELECTRIC CAR USE ONLY.” Gas cars still blocked the spots.

Next they painted the entire wall in front of the charging spots green with white text. That still didn’t work. Then they got official NO PARKING EXCEPT FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING signs and the ICEing problem evaporated overnight. ICEing hasn’t been a major problem there since.
This charging site is at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis.  This is the most vivid shade of green markings that I’ve ever seen! I’m all for using green pavement markings to supplement effective signs, I only oppose a mandate to require green paint in order to be enforceable. It’s hard to miss these green spots.

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Black Ankle Vineyards has installed six electric vehicle charging stations at their tasting room near Mt. Airy, Maryland. This is one of the biggest Tesla destination charging locations in the mid-Atlantic region and perhaps the “highest-powered” vineyard with EV charging in the area.

The tasting room is located in a building made with straw bale construction and has solar panels on the roof. There is plenty of outdoor seating for those who want to bring a picnic in the warmer months. The day we visited in February, there were several indoor fireplaces going that gave the place a warm, cozy feeling.

The six charging stations are located separate from the main parking area and consist of three 80 Amp Tesla connectors and three 32 Amp ClipperCreek J-1772 stations.

Black Ankle Vineyards is located at 14463 Black Ankle Rd, Mount Airy, MD and is open Fridays from 12:00 pm until 8:30 pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm.

Now you can charge your electric car when you stay overnight at several West Virginia State Park lodges.

Cacapon Resort, located about 100 miles from Washington, DC, is one of three West Virginia State Parks to install EV charging stations for overnight guests. Pipestem and Twin Falls also have EV charging.

Cacapon has two 30-Amp, Level 2, J-1772 charging ports made by Schneider Electric that are located in the main parking area of the lodge.
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A new DC Fast Charger is now open at the Royal Farms store at 1114 Route 3/Crain Hwy in Crofton, Maryland.

This station is an Efacec QC50 dual CHAdeMO and SAE Combo Fast Charger and is a welcome addition to the growing number of Fast Chargers that are helping to facilitate electric vehicle travel throughout the state of Maryland.
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Newark and Milford Tesla Superchargers are Four Years Old

The first Tesla Supercharger stations to be built outside of California opened four years ago today.

On December 21, 2012, Tesla officially opened the Superchargers at the Delaware Welcome Center in Newark and at the Milford Travel Plazas on I-95 in Connecticut. These two locations enabled Model S drivers to travel between Washington, DC and Boston using Tesla’s exclusive fast charging stations. Before these opened, only six Supercharger sites existed in the world, all in California. Today, Tesla reports 769 Supercharger stations worldwide.

The original Superchargers in Milford have since been updated with new stalls and faster charging speed. In March, 2016, the original site at the Newark Welcome Center was decommissioned and 12 new stalls were built in another area of the Travel Plaza’s parking lot.

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On Monday, November 14, 2016, the EV charging stations at Catoctin Mountain Park near Thurmont, Maryland will open for public use. The park has received financial support from the Geller Family Foundation through Adopt a Charger to fund the electricity used by visitors to charge their vehicles.

As we reported in August, Catoctin Mountain Park installed charging stations in November, 2015 but later learned of a policy that National Parks with electric vehicle charging equipment could not provide the electricity for charging at the taxpayers’ expense. The Park was unable to find an acceptable solution for taking payments and attempts to get a waiver of the policy had failed. The staff at the park had redoubled their efforts to find a solution when they were approached by Adopt a Charger and their donor.

Adopt a Charger is a nonprofit organization that helps speed the adoption of electric vehicles by helping to provide EV charging stations which are “adopted” by sponsors. Corporations, organizations, and individuals donate funds to install and maintain charging stations at parks, museums, and other public places.

The initial funding to purchase and install the electric vehicle charging equipment was provided by a grant from the US Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program in partnership with the National Park Service.

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Have you ever heard of the Patuxent Research Refuge? I hadn’t, until an EV charging station appeared there recently. I decided to take a trip there to check out the dual port ChargePoint station installed under a solar canopy. I’m glad I did. The charging station introduced me to a beautiful lake and hiking trail. If you like the outdoors, you’ll love this EV Plug In Site.

The charging station is in the parking lot of the National Wildlife Visitor Center in the South Tract of the Refuge. The Patuxent Research Refuge was established in 1936 to support wildlife research. Its mission is “to help protect and conserve the nation’s wildlife and habitat through research on critical environmental problems and issues.” It has 12,841 acres of forest, meadows and wetlands.

We plugged in and took a leisurely 1.4 mile walk around the perimeter of Cash Lake which supports a variety of waterfowl, songbirds, beaver and other wildlife. There are other short trails in the area totaling 5 miles as well as the Visitor Center and book store which is open 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM daily. Closed on Federal holidays.

The address is 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel, MD 20708.

The charging station costs $1.00 per hour and you should bring your ChargePoint card or App to activate it.

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