Allan Appel Photo
There’s a new juice bar in town, but you have to be an electric car to imbibe.
Megan Pomeroy who develops new business for United Illuminating, and New Haven Parking Authority Chief Operating Officer Sammy Parry were among two dozen luminaries from the lighting, power, and parking sectors on hand at the Chapel Square Garage beneath the Omni Hotel Tuesday morning to celebrate.
The event marked the installation of the first free “juice bar” or charging station for electric vehicles in the city. The station was designed by Garage Juice Bar, along with BMW. A similar one made its debut in Boston yesterday.
This particular “juice bar” serves up a cocktail of “level two” electricity, explained Pomeroy. That means 220 volts, which would enable an electric car or hybrid to get “tanked” as it were in two or three hours. A “level one” pump is 110 volts and would take twice as long.
However, if two cars met at the juice bar and got along great and started interacting, as it were, they could share the juice and have a nice four or five hours of charging together.
Precisely what kinds of configurations work and at what types of commercial locations is part of what UI is up to. “It’s a learning experience for UI,” she said.
Through the Office of Susainability, the city is conducting a survey as to where charging stations should be installed.
There are more such level two stations coming to the city this fall: at the Temple Street Garage, Air Rights Garage, and at the NHPA’s Union Station.
Chapel Square Garage was the first. For that it received the first-ever green parking garage laurels.
The charging station along with other improvements such as replacement of energy-wasting fluorescents with new LED lighting; a tire inflation station for your bike or sedan; recycling bins, and bike racks all combined earned the garage the designation as the nation’s second and Connecticut’s first “certified green garage.
That designation was conferred by the Green Parking Council (GPC). GPC Executive Director Marc Alt and Board Chair John Schmid (pictured “pumping”) were also on hand for the festivities.
The GPC is a two-year old not-for-profit that is developing standards of certifications for parking garages akin to architectural and building standards for the emerging green housing and office building economy.
“The move to electric vehicles will transform the parking garage,” Alt predicted.
He added that Chapel Square Garage is not quite “certified” yet but rather the leading edge, the pilot project for those standards expected to be announced later in the fall.
As he demonstrated a fill-up, GPC’s John Schmid said, “In Denver we’re building the greenest parking garage on the planet,” explaining it would have in addition to the enhancements being celebrated at the Chapel Square Garage, solar and geothermal features as well.
While GPC works countrywide, Schmid said, he came to New Haven because “Only 15 cities are rolling out the electric car, so we’re focusing on urban garages” in those states.
As an incentive for Chapel Square Garage to make these conversions, the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund awarded the owners a check for $76,000.
At the tire inflation station Chief Administrative Officer Patrick Boeshans of Propark, which manages the garage for Chapel Square, said that Chapel Square had chosen Garage Juice Bar LLC to put in the charging station, among other vendors.
Why? Because their model was free. “It’s an amenity we [that is, the garage] offers,” he explained. That is, other charging stations might have credit card slots much like pumps at traditional gasoline stations.
That is, you don’t have to pay for it as long, of course, as you pay for the parking. “We don’t want to make more obstacles,” he said.
It was not clear yet what kind of signage the garage will put at the street level to alert drivers to the juice bar. Boeshans said the first line of marketing was via iphones and applications used by electric car owners.
Alt said the “juice bar” model had its own motto that was appealing to the GPC as well: Juice Bar believes you should charge cars, not people, he paraphrased.
“We lower electrical consumption [via the LED lighting for the garage] and [enable them to] give out free charges for electric cars” Schmid said.
According to the press release for the event, shifting to LED lighting allows “garage owners to lower electricity and maintenance costs by approximately 75 percent. This translates into a savings of 719 less barrels of oil or four tanker trucks.”
Omni Hotel General Manager Leo Chandler said he has already received calls from potential guests who are electric car drivers along the I‑95 corridor asking if downtown has a charging station.
NHPA Executive Director William Kilpatrick said that while he looks forward to the charging station being installed at his main parking facility at Union Station in the fall, “We’re very excited about the new bike area.”
He said construction is about to begin on the mulched plot to the north of the elevated garage, where by year’s end perhaps 100 badly need slots for bicycle parking will be available, and all under a shelter.
As to an electric car for his personal use, Kilpatrick expressed interest but said he was waiting for the prices to come down.