- Last Updated on Friday, 03 June 2022 20:10
The “place where clean air started” is also the town that hosts the first library in Washington County to install an electric vehicle charging station. The Donora Public Library has installed a charging station that can accommodate two electric vehicles (EV’s) at a time while parked at the library parking lot on Meldon Avenue in Donora.
A ChargePoint Electronic Vehicle charging station like the one shown above has been installed at the Donora Library |
Primary funding for the charging station is being provided by a Pennsylvania Driving Forward grant. The library board of directors is on record as being committed to clean energy and environment in what was once a smoky steel and zinc manufacturing town and the location of the 1948 smog disaster. The grant covered eighty-percent of the purchase and installation of the charging station equipment.
Electric vehicle owners can activate the charger by tapping their “ChargePoint” card on the charger’s screen. Once activated, the driver plugs in and can recharge their car’s battery while they walk to the nearby post office, borough building and of course, use the library. If the car’s battery is near full, “topping up” the charge may take just minutes. A full charge for low battery can take a few hours. To finish the transaction, the driver taps their card on the charger again, and will be charged for electricity used. Payment of one dollar for two hours of charging time will benefit library operations. To use the station, drivers should refer to the how-to at https://www.chargepoint.com/resources/how-start-charge-chargepoint-station.
The charger is administered by ChargePoint. ChargePoint is the world’s leading EV charging network. If a driver does not have a ChargePoint card, a phone call to ChargePoint will remotely activate the charger and will send the driver a card for future use. The station will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Installation of the station was performed by DK Electric of Monongahela, which is now a certified ChargePoint installer. The ChargePoint website has a charging station locator map to help drivers find car chargers locally and across the country.