With the aid of state grants, the Denver International Airport (DIA) says it will double the number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations available in the airport's public parking garages.
A total of 10 new EV charging stations will be installed this fall in the west parking garage. DIA says the stations will be free to customers who pay to park in the garage and are compatible with most electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
The new stations will be the airport's first AC Level 2 chargers, which use 240 V infrastructure and provide up to 20 miles of range per hour of charge time, according to U.S. Department of Energy estimates.
DIA is partially funding the project with a grant from the Charge Ahead Colorado Electric Vehicle and Charging Station program, which is administered by the Regional Air Quality Council and the Colorado Energy Office. The grant will pay for $32,600 of the estimated $85,000 project.
The project will bring the airport's number of publicly available charging stations to 20: In late 2013, DIA installed 10 EV charging stations in both the east and west parking garages. Those AC Level 1 stations use 120 V infrastructure that provides up to 5 miles of range per hour of charging time, DIA notes.
“Since adding electric vehicle charging stations in 2013, we have seen a tremendous response from passengers and an increasing demand for charging stations,” says airport CEO Kim Day. “The charging stations – along with other initiatives, including water bottle filling stations, LED lights and our comprehensive deicing fluid collection and recycling system – all contribute to our commitment to sustainability while simultaneously improving our customer experience.”
Separately, the airport also recently installed five AC Level 2 charging stations in the parking lot that serves airside employees (people who work on the concourses or airfield).
Those stations were also partially funded using a grant from the Charge Ahead Colorado program, which funded $31,300 of the $66,100 project.
For completing that project, DIA says it has been listed as a partner in the U.S. Department of Energy's Workplace Charging Challenge program, which encourages employers to provide EV charging stations for employee use.
