Electric vehicle (EV) charging stations are up and running in Black Diamond.
The Town applied to the Electric Vehicle Rebate Program from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) and was eligible for rebates of $160,000, enough to cover the cost and installation of four EV charging stations.
Three of the four chargers are now installed, said Les Quinton, parks and recreation manager for Black Diamond, with the fourth expected to be ready in a few weeks.
“Basically, they (MCCAC) paid for the costs for the chargers and for the installation,” Quinton said.
The three chargers that have been installed are Type 2 chargers, and they can charge two vehicles at once.
One is located in the public parking lot at 606 Centre Avenue West, and two are located in the public lot of the Town's Municipal Office.
Using the chargers will cost drivers $1.75 per hour of charging time.
The remaining charger, not yet installed, will go in at the Oilfields Regional Arena. It will be a Type 3 charger, capable of charging a vehicle in 30 minutes.
The EV charging stations offer several benefits to the town, he said.
“It helps us with our way onto trying to become more sustainable, which of course we've been working on for a while.”
Another benefit Quinton sees from the chargers is attracting more people to the area.
When the project is complete, the location of the chargers will go on websites that help drivers find the charging stations, Quinton said.
“That can bring people into town that normally wouldn't come here, ” he said.
During an update to Town council in May, CAO Sharlene Brown said a lot of thought went into deciding where to install the chargers. Existing electrical capacity and benefit to the Town were considered.
“If you have two here, at the town office, it’s closer access to downtown, therefore bringing more people, from an economic development point of view, into our downtown core,” Brown said.
Quinton sees electric vehicles becoming more common, and said he is grateful for these types of funding opportunities that can go towards the Town’s sustainability goals.
“We wanted to be involved,” he said.
Black Diamond originally looked into getting EV chargers in 2015 through a different cost-sharing agreement, but was unable to get funding by the program deadline.
The Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) is a partnership between Alberta Municipalities, Rural Municipalities of Alberta and the Government of Alberta. The Electric Vehicle Charging Program program is a rebate program administered through MCCAC, with funding from the provincial and federal governments.
Statistics Canada says zero-emission vehicles made up 7.7 per cent of new vehicle registrations across Canada in the first quarter of 2022, accounting for over 26,000 new vehicle registrations.
