Publicly available electric vehicle charging has greatly improved in Winneshiek County and northeast Iowa. Within Decorah city limits, there are now sixteen level 2 chargers available for public use and two direct current fast chargers at Decorah Chevrolet. County- and region-wide, the situation has improved, too, with public chargers available in Calmar, Cresco, West Union, Lansing, and others. Level 2 chargers can recharge an EV in 3-8 hours depending on
According to Autolist.com’s 2023 Electric Vehicle Survey, new car buyers’ top concerns with EVs include sky-high prices, range limitations, and a lack of public charging. As their data suggests, year-over-year progress has been made on all three of these fronts, with consumers increasingly warming to the idea of EV purchases. Nevertheless, significant obstacles remain. The average MSRP of an EV has narrowed relative to that of gas powered models, albeit
By Andy Johnson, Clean Energy Districts of Iowa Executive Director Heads up electric vehicle (EV) charge station owners: All non-residential EV charging that happens in the state of Iowa will be subject to a new 2.6 cents per kilowatt/hour fuel excise tax beginning July 1. To read the complete story, please visit Clean Energy Districts of Iowa’s website.
by Paul Cutting, Energy Planner Winneshiek Energy District is excited to partner with six Winneshiek County organizations and the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa to bring public-facing electric vehicle charging to downtown Calmar, Northeast Iowa Community College’s Calmar campus, Winneshiek Medical Center, the new Sunflower Child Development and Discovery Center, downtown Decorah at the Chamber of Commerce, and Seed Savers Exchange. The roughly $45,000 project is being funded, in part,
by Paul Cutting, Energy Planner Electric Vehicles (EVs) have improved by leaps and bounds over the past five years. The 2017 Nissan Leaf—then one of only a few EVs on the market—had a range of just 107 miles. Today that same vehicle has a range of 215 miles. In fact, most new entry level EVs, like the Chevy Bolt (259 miles range), the upcoming Chevy Equinox (300 miles), the upcoming
Paul Cutting, Energy Planner Prolonged power outages in the wake of natural disasters show the value of solar with backup battery capabilities. Following Hurricane Ian back in September, many areas were left without power for weeks, and as Decorah residents witnessed last December following a freak early winter storm, the power can go out for extended periods of time. Utilizing a stationary backup battery like the 13kW Tesla Powerwall, while
Joel Zook, Energy Planner 2022 started off with an announcement from Ford that it will double production of its Ford Lightning to 150,000 vehicles per year. Ford revealed the Ford F150 Lightning in May of 2021, with preorders available for vehicles rolling off the line in spring 2022. The decision to increase production was likely due to the popularity of the newly launched EV and the large number of reservation.