(Photo: Electric vehicles in New York City’s fleet. Credit: City of New York)[/caption]
New York City has received 50 Envision Solar’s EV Arc charging units to power municipal electric fleet vehicles. The $3.3 million purchase order is the latest in a multi-year contract the city initially awarded Envision Solar in 2017.
These EV Arc units provide charging to vehicles across departments including the police and fire departments, and other city services, according Envision Solar.
“The engineering, permitting and construction of grid-tied EV chargers can be challenging, expensive and time consuming in large and complex cities like New York City,” the company said. “The EV Arc unit’s rapid deployment, which requires no construction nor planning or installation services, makes it a highly scalable, rapidly and easily deployed EV infrastructure solution.”
Each EV Arc unit fits inside a single parking space, and generates enough solar electricity to power as many as 225 miles of EV driving in one day, according to Envision Solar. A patented system causes the solar array to follow the sun, generating as much as 25% more electricity than a fixed array, the company said.
Since energy gets stored in product, it can provide EV charging and emergency power during grid failure. Units don’t require trenching, foundations, or installation work so they can be deployed in minutes and easily moved to a new location, the company added.
At the beginning of this year, New York City had 1,756 electric vehicles on the road and another 163 on order, Envision Solar says. In late March, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order to eliminate at least 1,000 vehicles from the city’s fleet by June 2021. He also directed the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) to replace at least 250 SUVs with electric plug-in sedans.
The mayor’s office estimated that the executive order would cut annual fuel consumption by 500,000 gallons and decrease annual emissions by 6,300 metric tons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of burning nearly 7 million pounds of coal.
This year DCAS published an analysis of electric vehicle costs and concluded that EVs reduce maintenance costs, saving the city money in addition to fuel and emissions benefits.
“Right now, servicing costs with our all-electric vehicle models is dramatically less than with gas, hybrid, or hybrid plug-in models,” Keith T. Kerman, deputy commissioner and chief fleet officer wrote.
