Colonie has its first town-owned charging station for electric vehicles.
The chargers at the William K. Sanford Library are a first for the Albany County town. At a ceremony Tuesday, Republican town supervisor Peter Crummey said the four level two chargers and a new electric town vehicle, funded in part by grants from National Grid and NYSERDA, are helping Colonie reach its climate goals.
Crummey regularly usse the new EV for town business.
“It's important that we're ever cognizant of meaning maintaining our environment and taking all the green initiatives that we can in order to advance our town. People want to live, work and play in the Town of Colonie,” Crummey said.
The chargers, installed and operated by Schenectady-based Lynkwell — which developed the software behind them — can fully charge a typical electric car battery in eight hours.
Crummey says it’s part of wider environmental efforts.
“We have added 4000 LED streetlights in place of the old fixtures, and this act alone is projected to save 50 percent electricity to the town of Colonie,” Crummey said.
For those efforts, Colonie was recognized with a bronze-level Climate Smart Community designation.
Crummey says you can’t top off an EV in the same way as a gas or diesel vehicle.
“I’ve learned that they typically charge to 80 percent and I was, like, ‘Well, why would I want 80 percent? I want 100% charge,’ and I think you can override that, but it defaults to 80, because what I've read in the manual is, if you're heading downhill, it starts to self-charge,” Crummey said.
Crummey notes a drawback of electric cars – they’re nearly silent while moving and can be dangerous for pedestrians. Many can play music or other sounds to make their presence known.
Kate Kruk is Director of Partnership and Engagement for Lynkwell.
“We met with town leadership- they reached out to us, and we developed a site plan and an execution plan to make sure that we get these charging stations here and in the ground as quick as possible,” Kruk said.
Despite the positives, Kruk says there are drawbacks to driving an EV.
“You don't get to visit the service station as often as you probably want to, because there's no oil changes. There's no fluid changes. Basically, with an electric vehicle, you rotate the tires and add wiper fluid, and you're on your way to go. There’s none of that. That pesky oil change sticker is gone...,” Kruk said.
Lynkwell has the state Office of General Services contract for chargers, which Kruk says helps reduce the cost of installing them. She adds the cost to charge up is lower than with combustion engine vehicles.
“Sometimes the charge is free. Sometimes, National Grid, who's here today, they have off peak hours and different utility rates for charging your vehicle at home overnight. So that $15 can turn into $5 depending on when and how you choose to fuel your vehicle,” Kruk said.
These particular chargers, Kruk says, provide 7.2 kilowatts of power, which equates to about 25 miles of range, per hour.
Kruk adds Lynkwell sees expansion opportunities across the Capital Region.
“Any place that your car is spending more time than you are is a good place to put a charging station in. So that's a lot of opportunity now; workplace, multiunit dwellings are also a big, a big part of the equation,” Kruk said.
County Executive Dan McCoy, a Democrat, has also made it a goal to make all of Albany a “green county.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated new electric vehicle chargers in Colonie were manufactured by Lynkwell. They were installed and are operated by Lynkwell, but were not manufactured by them. The software operating them was developed by Lynkwell.
