Indiana awards $ 5.5 million to utility companies to build electric vehicle charging stations
Indiana will award more than $ 5.5 million to a group of eight electric utilities to install electric vehicle charging stations across the state. The money comes from the agreement with Volkswagen on violations of the Clean Air Act.
Indiana Utility Group will build 61 DC fast charging stations that will charge electric cars in just 20 minutes. There are approximately 40 high-capacity public charging stations in the state – more than half of them in Indianapolis.
Shawn Seals of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management said utility companies have a vested interest in the success of these charging stations.
“Because they also supply the stations with electricity,” he said.
The Indiana Utilities in the group will also provide partial matching dollars for the program. However, it is unclear whether they will try to reclaim these funds from their customers. Indiana Utility Group members have yet to decide where to locate the stations.
“We are open to working with IDEM in the best locations and finding out which solution is best for the entire state. One of the strengths of our application was filling any void in the state, ”said Jordan Wallpe of Duke Energy.
Most of the stations should be completed by the end of 2023.
Contact reporter Rebecca at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.
Environmental reporting in Indiana is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project that develops Indiana-specific projections and provides informed answers to problems related to environmental change.