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Business & Tech

Rising Fuel Prices Put Spotlight On PD's Green Secret

After 15 years at Palm Desert Civic Center Park, a free electric-vehicle charging station's time may have come.

Rising gas prices has some city officials wondering if it will lead to renewed interest in Palm Desert’s 15-year-old electric car charging station at Civic Center Park.

 “We’re not seeing much public use right now, but it’s possible that may change with the way gas prices are going up right now,” said city spokesman David Hermann.

The multi-outlet charging station was installed in the park’s parking lot in June 1996 for nearly $132,000, Hermann said. Since then, he added, maintenance costs have been negligible.

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“(The charging station) is just another example of city’s commitment to clean energy,” Hermann said.

And although the public may not be making much use of the resource at the moment, he said the city uses the station to charge its own fleet of electric vehicles, which at this point are restricted to golf carts used for park maintenance and other city duties.

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Set up to service as many as eight vehicles at once, Hermann said the station has the ability to charge any electric vehicle capable of plugging into a 110-volt outlet.

The price couldn’t be better for the public.

“The station has always been free and available to the public,” he said. “The cost works out to be just pennies per hour, so the city doesn’t monitor or regulate its use.

“Plus there’s no time limit – and so far we haven’t had a situation where somebody left a car plugged in there for more than a 24-hour period.”

All this is good news to John Cook, general sales manager at Chevrolet/Cadillac of La Quinta on Highway 111, whose dealership sold out of its first shipment of the all-electric Chevrolet Volt long before a single car reached the showroom floor.

“I wasn’t aware of Palm Desert’s charging station, but I’ll be letting customers know about it right away,” he said. “We should be getting another 15 to 20 Volts in the next 90 days or so and the station could be a great resource for electric car owners in the area.”

Gabriel Rivera, regional sales manager with Palm Desert retailer Green Bay Group on Mediterranean Avenue, was equally clueless and enthusiastic with respect to the city resource.

“I hate to say it, but this is news to me,” he said. “As someone who works for – and believes in – a company that’s all about green energy solutions, I should have known about it.”

Rivera added that his company is one of several valley merchants and organizations behind last fall’s EV Valley Rally, which he said was held to help increase public awareness of zero and low-emissions vehicles. He added that groups will start planning the next rally, tentatively scheduled for October, within the next few months.

In the wake of this enthusiasm, Hermann said there are currently no plans to expand the existing station in Civic Center Park or install additional stations at this time.

 “If we start to notice an increase in the use of the station, that may start a conversation possibly installing additional stations elsewhere in Palm Desert,”  Hermann said. “We’ll just have to see.”

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