Jackson to unveil electric vehicle charging stations

The Town of Jackson will formally unveil several charging stations for electric vehicles Thursday, making it the first gateway community to Yellowstone National Park to have such infrastructure.

Three of the four free charging stations were installed on Town Square, the public parking garage on Millward Street and the Deloney Street public parking lot. One more will be installed at the Home Ranch public parking lot.

Last summer, the town council approved $37,000 in Special Excise Tax funds through Energy Conservation Works. Energy Conservation Works is a partnership between the Town of Jackson, Teton County and Lower Valley Energy.

“No other place in America is there a joint partners board between its municipality, its county and its utility provider,” said Jackson Mayor Mark Barron. “Our charge is to reduce energy consumption across our local grid, and we’re doing that.”

The Yellowstone-Teton Clean Energy Coalition helped coordinate placement of the charging stations. Interim Director Alicia Cox said they carried out research with the city to provide research.

“Through that research process we kind of identified areas that were in town that were either going to be highly visible or make a lot of sense for those who live here, as well as visitors to have easy access to,” said Cox.

Three of the four charging stations use solar energy from nearby buildings.

“This is green energy charging a clean energy vehicle,” said Barron. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Jean Jorgensen doesn’t need electricity to run her Chevy Volt, but it keeps money in her pocket.

“It’s much more economical and ecological to be using electric,” said Jorgensen. “In this region, we happen to be lucky to have a pretty low electric rate.”