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Danbury's WestConn To Install 4 Electric Car Charging Stations

DANBURY, Conn. -- If you are a Western Connecticut State University student with an electric car, you will soon have a new place to charge your vehicle in Danbury.

This EV sign will let motorists know there is a free electric car charging station available. WestConn is slated to install four of the stations.

This EV sign will let motorists know there is a free electric car charging station available. WestConn is slated to install four of the stations.

Photo Credit: Contributed
WestConn announced two EV chargers will be in the White Street Garage on the Midtown campus and two in the Centennial Hall Garage on the Westside campus.

WestConn announced two EV chargers will be in the White Street Garage on the Midtown campus and two in the Centennial Hall Garage on the Westside campus.

Photo Credit: File

In the coming months, WestConn will install four electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, two on the Midtown and two on the Westside campuses. They will be free-to-use, public units, thanks to a grant from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The EV units, which can fully charge a vehicle in two hours, will be available not only to the campus community, but to the public as well — free of charge.

WCSU Director of Facilities, Operations and Environmental Health and Safety Programs Luigi Marcone applied for the EnergizeCT grant that will partially fund the installation of the units.         

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to be a good civic community partner,” Marcone said. “On campus we are trying to focus on being green and we want to support those individuals who are doing the same by driving electric cars.”

WestConn will be designated as a participant in the EV Connecticut Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions program. Signs designed by the state Department of Transportation will alert motorists to the presence of the EV charging units — two in the White Street Garage on the Midtown campus and two in the Centennial Hall Garage on the Westside campus.

Western also will be noted as a free EV charging provider on state Web portals and other websites, such as the U.S. Department of Energy and motor clubs. 

“Our goal is a network of charging stations that allows anyone driving an electric vehicle to travel anywhere in our state with total confidence that they will be able to recharge their car battery when necessary,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a press release. The DEEP grants will add 56 charging stations to the nearly 100 that are already available and put more of them at restaurants, businesses, colleges, medical centers, municipal parking facilities and other convenient locations. (Read more about the state grant and the new locations for car charging stations here on The Daily Voice.)

DEEP Commissioner Daniel C. Esty told WestConn in a statement, “Your efforts are helping to put us on a path toward greater energy independence and ushering in a time when motorists need not spend a single dollar on gasoline and instead refuel with locally generated electricity from domestically produced fuels.

"You are also helping to alleviate one of the greatest barriers to the widespread introduction of EVs: fear of running low on power and being unable to recharge before completing a trip," Esty said. "In fact, your charging stations bring us one step closer toward our goal of providing publicly accessible EV charging stations within a 15-minute (or less) driving radius of any location in Connecticut. With your help, we are replacing ‘range anxiety’ with range confidence.”

The grant stipulates that the four units must be operational by April 1, but Marcone said they will be installed and functioning several months before that.

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