The City held a ribbon-cutting event at the Civic Coliseum parking garage to officially mark the opening of 24 EV charging stations in City garages and other facilities.

Mayor Madeline Rogero, Dr. Thom Mason, Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Jeremy Covert of ECOtality North America attended the ribbon cutting. ECOtality received a $99.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to place 14,000 EV charging stations across the country.

In East Tennessee, the company worked with ORNL to site the stations, including those in Knoxville. Equipment and installation costs for the 24 Knoxville stations totaled about $400,000.

"These charging stations will make it easier for local electric-vehicle owners to plug in while they're at work, and make the commute home with a fully charged battery," said Susana Sutherland, manager of the City's Office of Sustainability. "This is critical infrastructure to encourage the use of vehicles that consume less energy and produce fewer emissions."

The 24 charging stations in the City are at the following locations: Civic Coliseum Garage - 6
Market Square Garage - 4
State Street Garage - 2
Ijams Nature Center - 2
Jackson Avenue parking lot - 2
West Hills Park - 2
Victor Ashe Park - 2
Sequoyah Park - 2
Caswell Park - 2

The charging stations at the Coliseum Garage and Market Square Garage are accompanied by solar panels: a 14.4 kilowatt array at the Coliseum, and an 8.64 kilowatt array at Market Square. Both are capable of offsetting heavy EV charging usage onsite.