Kelowna City Council took a big step this week by endorsing an electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure strategy on Monday. The Council enlisted the help of community energy specialist Chris Ray to develop a plan and provide the city with recommendations.
Ray provided 39 recommendations to Council that the city could do to help make EV ownership more attractive. Many of these recommendations surround the availability of charging outlets on both public and private property.
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Some of these recommendations include:
- all multi-unit construction to require charging outlets at each stall
- all new gas stations are required to provide alternative forms of fueling, whether that be hydrogen or plug-in chargers
- 10% of new commercial parking stalls to include EV charging infrastructure.
- by 2030, all multi-use residential buildings to have an adequate charging infrastructure.
Although these changes may be expensive, they will help Kelowna meet or exceed the national and provincial zero-emission vehicle sales targets.
British Columbia is already leading EV expansion, and Kelowna could undoubtedly be a regional leader for the province.
Source: Castanet
