{"id":2451693,"date":"2019-11-29T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=316904"},"modified":"2019-11-29T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T04:00:00","slug":"electric-vehicles-take-center-stage-in-aspen-in-coming-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/electric-vehicles-take-center-stage-in-aspen-in-coming-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Electric vehicles take center stage in Aspen in coming week"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tuesday will be a big day for electric vehicles in the upper Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

Not only will the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority unleash its eight new electric buses on routes in the Aspen area, Pitkin County commissioners are scheduled to approve a partnership that will provide four more electric vehicle charging stations for the public at Buttermilk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited about it,\u201d said Dan Blankenship, RFTA\u2019s CEO. \u201cWe\u2019re going to play it by ear as we get them out into service and see how they do in winter driving conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

RFTA paid $9.2 million for the eight buses, which were delivered during the past three months, as well as charging stations and related infrastructure. The public is invited to Rubey Park on Tuesday between 3:30 and 5 p.m. to see and hear about the buses.<\/p>\n

Blankenship said the electric buses will be a work in progress at first while drivers, mechanics and RFTA officials get a feel for how they handle in winter driving conditions, and determine what their range turns out to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re calling it a pilot program,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will need to work out any potential glitches we might have.\u201d<\/p>\n

So for the time being, the electric buses will stick close to RFTA\u2019s Aspen maintenance facility, where the only charging stations the buses can use have been installed, Blankenship said. The electric buses are likely to be deployed on the Hunter Creek and Castle Maroon routes, as well as Buttermilk shuttles and the new weekend route from the Brush Creek Park and Ride Lot to Aspen Highlands, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will limit the range so that with any issues, we are in better position to deal with them close to home,\u201d Blankenship said.<\/p>\n

Future locations of bus charging stations, which would help increase the vehicles\u2019 range, include the Snowmass Mall, the Brush Creek parking lot, RFTA\u2019s Glenwood Springs maintenance facility and possibly Rubey Park, Blankenship said.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County\u2019s proposed public charging stations at Buttermilk will not be able to charge the new electric buses, said Brian Pettet, the county\u2019s public works director. The stations, which will be operated by Holy Cross Energy in partnership with the county, will be for electric vehicles only because the buses require much higher levels of charge, he said.<\/p>\n

If commissioners approve the plan Tuesday, the four stations with eight Level 2 charging outlets will operate on a fee basis, Pettet said. The county operates two Level 2 chargers and a Level 3 charger \u2014 which charges vehicles quickly \u2014 at the Public Works facility near the Aspen Business Center, he said.<\/p>\n

Those county-owned chargers are available to the public and are currently free, though that likely will change to a fee-based system in the near future, Pettet said.<\/p>\n

Holy Cross would pay the roughly $62,000 in costs to install and manage the Buttermilk charging stations, which would be located at the lot at the corner of Owl Creek Road and Highway 82, according to a memo from Pettet to commissioners.<\/p>\n

The stations are part of Holy Cross\u2019 efforts to develop charging locations within its territory that includes a partnership with Eagle County to provide more than 40 Level 2 chargers throughout that county.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Holy Cross\u2019) service territory is seeing a significant year-over-year increase in (electric vehicle) sales,\u201d Pettet wrote in the memo. \u201cThe area has 10% of all EV sales in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holy Cross already has installed a charger at the Park and Ride Lot in Eagle, while the company\u2019s plan for charging stations in the Roaring Fork Valley already includes a station installed earlier this year at the Basalt Town Hall, according to Pettet\u2019s memo.<\/p>\n

Other locations in Pitkin County that could see charging stations in the next few years include the airport, the Brush Creek Park and Ride Lot, the Redstone Hotel and an unspecified location in Woody Creek, Pettet said.<\/p>\n

The Buttermilk location is \u201cideal based on its access to power, visibility and commuter use,\u201d Pettet wrote in the memo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis location supports (Holy Cross\u2019) \u2018Charge at Work\u2019 program \u2026 (where) EV drivers charge during work hours and take public transit into the Aspen area,\u201d the memo states.<\/p>\n

Further evidence of the Roaring Fork Valley\u2019s commitment to electric vehicles will be visible to Aspen area skiers and snowboarders by January, when Aspen Skiing Co. plans to begin its electric snowmobile pilot programer with the Canada-based Taiga Motors. Skico and Taiga officials hope to have the electric snowmobile in Aspen in time for Winter X Games in January.<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday will be a big day for electric vehicles in the upper Roaring Fork Valley. Not only will the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority unleash its eight new electric buses on routes in the Aspen area, Pitkin County commissioners are scheduled to approve a partnership that will provide four more electric vehicle charging stations for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 04:13:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}