The City of San Diego has launched a pilot program that will use solar power to charge the city’s electric vehicle fleet. “The EV ARC solar EV charging stations will allow the city to take advantage of San Diego’s most plentiful natural resource and reduce emissions from city operations that harm human health and contribute to the climate crisis,” said Mayor Todd Gloria.
Through this pilot, the city is partnering with Sorrento Valley-based Beam Global, to evaluate its Electric Vehicle Autonomous Renewable Charger (EV ARC) for the next six months. The EV ARC is designed to fit inside a 9 by 8 feet parking space and can park on top of the ballast pad so no parking area is wasted, It can fuel up to five vehicles at a time. The pilot program contributes to one of the goals of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) by reducing emissions from the ity fleet. The CAP sets targets of increasing the share of Zero Emissions Vehicles in the municipal fleet to 90 percen by 2035. Currently, the city has 20 electric vehicles out of 4,000 in the fleet.
