Want to jump start the electric vehicle revolution? Then make it illegal to ignore. That’s what San Francisco is doing with a revised building code that will require all new structures to have wiring for EV chargers. The new code is just one of a handful of reasons why the city is set to lead the EV pack, according to a recent article in the New York Times.
Another thing the Bay Area has on its side: it can lay claim to Silicon Valley-based EV-related companies like Coulomb Technologies, Better Place, and Tesla Motors. The increased visibility of green cars has already led to a boom in hybrid car sales — in Berkeley, one in every 5 cars sold in a Prius. Rest assured the area will also be quick to latch on to the plug-in hybrid Prius when it is released.
When the EV onslaught begins, local utilities will have to be prepared for the rise in electricity usage. PG&E’s pilot smart charging project, scheduled to begin later this year, should help with the process by connecting 200 EVs to charging stations where the utility can control electrical demand.
A fully-functional smart grid will be key to making sure that power outages don’t occur as a result of the entire Bay Area trying to plug in their EVs at the same time after work. But that’s one of the disadvantages of being an earlier adopter — San Francisco will have to work out the kinks of EV charging. Still, someone has to do it, and the tech-savvy Bay Area might just be the best place.
Via New York Times
[...] it’s good planning — and so far, despite a little competition from the Big Apple, the Bay is in good shape, but this round of installations will give it a huge [...]