Chicago Area Clean Cities is participating in a nationwide research project to identify and address barriers to multi-unit dwelling (MUD) and residential curbside plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging.
The goal of the project is fivefold:
- Engage stakeholders to document barriers to MUD and residential curbside PEV charging;
- Gather baseline data from existing MUD and residential curbside charging stations;
- Demonstrate innovative technologies that address identified barriers;
- Compile project findings in an easy-to-use toolkit, and;
- Disseminate the toolkit across national, regional, state, and local channels.
The project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, focuses on ways to increase tenant use of charging stations, while decreasing operating costs and generating revenue for building owners. CACC is gathering feedback from PEV drivers, building owners, property managers and developers.
“The toolkit that is being developed will help the owners of multi-unit dwellings to reduce their costs and increase the use of EV charging stations,” said Jeremy Orr, who is leading outreach and research on behalf of Chicago Area Clean Cities. “Identifying the hurdles to charging will help facilitate the widespread installation of charging infrastructure, which is needed before EVs can go mainstream with consumers.”
Partners in the project include 13 Clean Cities coalitions from throughout the U.S., the Center for Sustainable Energy, Energetics, Forth, National Association of State Energy Officials, and various utilities, technology providers, government agencies, developers and property managers.
Seventy percent of people in the City of Chicago live in condos, apartments or other multi-unit dwellings. In April, Chicago City’s Council approved an ordinance requiring new construction of residential and commercial buildings of certain sizes to ensure at least 20% of any supplied parking spaces are ready for electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment to be installed. The new rules apply to residential buildings with five or more units and commercial buildings with 30 or more parking spaces.
To learn more, please contact Samantha Bingham of Chicago Area Clean Cities at sam@chicagocleancities.org.