California Energy Commission has awarded $474,052 from California EV Alliance for the deployment of EV charging infrastructure in the San Francisco Bay Area. A consortium of EV industry developed the Bay Area Charge Ahead Project to deploy 37 charging stations -- and a total of 74 individual charge ports -- across 18 locations in 10 municipalities. The consortium led by the California EV Alliance includes ChargePoint, ABM, the Bay Area Climate Collaborative, and ten municipalities.

“ABM and ChargePoint are proud to be deploying these EV charging stations together in the Bay Area,” says Cameron Funk, Director Business Development for ABM; and Richard Lowenthal, ChargePoint co-founder, in a joint statement.

The Bay Area Charge Ahead project was developed with the support of two nonprofit leaders in EV and clean energy work – the California EV Alliance, and the Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) According to the Alliance Executive Director, Richard Schorske, and the BACC Executive Director, Rafael Reyes: “This project is a milestone in our joint work to help Bay Area municipalities build out the region’s EV infrastructure, and we look forward to advancing best practices that will make this region the national leader in mass EV adoption.”

The publicly available charging stations will be deployed at locations in the cities of Benicia, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, Napa, Novato, Petaluma, San Leandro, St Helena, and Yountville. The Bay Area has nearly 40 percent of the plug-in electric vehicles in California and public charging enables more miles to be travelled with clean electric drive vehicles. Over 10 years, the Bay Area Charge Ahead project infrastructure is projected to result in net reductions of 10 million kilograms of CO2 compared to the global warming pollution of regular gas vehicles.

“We are excited to be accelerating EV adoption in Berkeley and throughout the region. EVs are a big win for people to save money, improve air quality, and cut the pollution that’s causing global warming,” said Berkeley Mayor and Bay Area EV Strategic Council co-chair Tom Bates, “And when people experience electric they discover that these cars really are the better ride!”

The lead applicant for the grant is the California EV Alliance, a public/private partnership that works to accelerate mass adoption of EVs. San Jose based EV equipment maker ChargePoint will provide the charging stations, ABM will install them, and the Bay Area Climate Collaborative, a non-profit project of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, will provide project management services.

An EV charging station in Berlin, Germany. (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)