Six electric vehicle charging stations being installed across UNT campus

DENTON (UNT), Texas — The University of North Texas campus will soon receive six electronic vehicle, or EV, charging stations.
Construction is underway for the six stations, which will be in three different locations: the Wooten Hall parking lot, the parking lot for the Radio, Television, Film and Performing Arts Building, and the parking lot for the Environmental Education, Science and Technology Building.  All six stations should be installed and operational by the end of the 2012 fall semester, according to staff members at the UNT Office of Sustainability.

The idea for the stations was proposed and submitted to the We Mean Green Fund  by UNT student Matthew McCallum and staff member Brad Holt, a senior videographer in the Division of University Relations, Communications and Marketing.

“I'd been planning to buy an EV as my next car for a while, but I was waiting for the technology and infrastructure to grow a bit more,” Holt said “I was curious if there were any plans in the works to install EV charging stations around campus. I learned that the idea had been tossed around, but no real plans were in the works. It was then that someone told me about the We Mean Green Fund.”

A project summary by the UNT Office of Sustainability, released in April of this year, states that the objective of the project is to promote research and affect behavior change. Researchers will take the information from the current EV market and the infrastructure supporting the electric vehicles to identify models to improve the viability of electric vehicle purchase and use. The installation of EV charging stations at UNT helps fulfill the mission of the WMGF, “reducing the amount waste created on campus and encouraging sustainable behaviors” by encouraging the use of electric vehicles, and further positions UNT as a leader in sustainability.

Holt said that supporting EVs by installing charging stations fits in well with UNT’s green efforts. During the past year, wind turbines have been installed at Apogee Stadium as a power source. In addition, UNT is home to several LEED-certified buildings

ECOtality, the EV station manufacturer, will provide partial funding through a Department of Energy grant. The We Mean Green Fund also approved additional funding for the station’s infrastructure of power lines and fiber optic cables.