Stockholm Leaps Into the Electric Infrastructure Fray : TreeHugger

Stockholm Leaps Into Electric Car-Infrastructure photo
Fortum is considering designs for charging posts - here's one possibility.

There is a not-so-openly acknowledged race for a select group of cities. It's a case of electric infrastructure one-upmanship.

Finnish utility Fortum is promising to install 100 electric charging stations in the city of Stockholm in the coming year. Even though that probably won't put Stockholm or Sweden at the absolute head of the electric pack (Oslo will likely have well over 100 stations by the end of next year), Stockholm's move is a good one. The city unveiled its first two permanent charging stations, and three more at different points at the city's edges will soon be in place. Stockholm is aiming to be an "emissions free" city in terms of car traffic by 2030. Can they do it?

Fortum Electric Charging Post photo
With the first charging post now in the ground, Fortum and the City of Stockholm are trying to figure out the best way to incorporate stations into the city infrastructure without slowing down traffic. They still have hurdles, however. The first stations will be free (as well as free parking in front of the post) as it will take around 5-8 hours (!) to recharge an empty battery. Fortum is testing various fast-charge methodologies as well as ways to pay, including via mobile phones and SMS (short message system), or via a credit card or bank ATM card.

Are electric cars CO2 free in Stockholm?
Fortum and the City of Stockholm are calculating that average Swedish cars emit 180 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, while an electric car would take between .1 nd .2 kWh of electricity per kilometer. With the current mix of electricity generation sources in the Scandinavian network, this would mean an average of between 9 - 18 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer - so emissions would drop to between 10 and 20 percent of a regular car. If cars charged up with certified green energy, that number would drop to near zero, Fortum said.

Both Fortum and the City of Stockholm are themselves switching their internal car fleets to electric hybrids - they hope to have half of their fleets switched by 2015. Right now only about 300 cars in all of Sweden could use the posts. The City of Stockholm also has as a goal that traffic should be much quieter by 2030, and that the electricity used in the charging posts will be either carbon neutral or from an alternative source, such as wind. Via: Svenska Dagbladet

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