The Tucson Clean Cities program, which is managed by the Pima Association of Governments, worked with the local EV (Electric Vehicle) Project steering committee to identify potential sites. By the end of this year, an estimated 125 charging stations will be installed in Pima County.

Along with the chargers that are being installed at eight Pima County library sites, two chargers are being installed at Tucson Botanical Garden, 2150 N. Alvernon Way; two at Brooklyn Pizza Company at 534 N. Alvernon Way, and one at The Nature Conservancy, 1510 E. Ft. Lowell Road.

Two chargers are being installed at a solar engineering firm, Sunpower of Arizona, at 1135 N. Jefferson Ave.

The University of Arizona has three chargers: at 1201 E. 6^th St, at 1117 E. 6^th St., and at 1310 E. 1^st St.

To see when the chargers go live, go to this website and click on Tucson:

http://blinknetwork.com/locator.html

The charging stations are part of a nationwide EV Project.

The installation and operating costs are paid for by ECOtality, North America, the Phoenix-based technology company, with Department of Energy federal stimulus money that was matched by private investment, according to Marc Sobelman, ECOtality area manager for Arizona. He said ECOtality contributed 50 percent of  the cost of the project.

Sobelman said there will be a fee for charging a vehicle – likely around $1.25 an hour.

ECOtality’s “Blink Pedestal” Level 2 supplemental charging stations take about two to three hours to fully charge a vehicle.

They’re not meant as charging destinations, but an as amenity provided by the “host” for recharging vehicles on the go, which routinely are fully charged at the vehicle owner’s home.

For more on sustainability in Pima County, go to www.GreenPuebloMap.org to see locations of Pima County’s sustainability assets.