By Jeff Noedel
Journal contributor
The Port of Friday Harbor will soon be installing up to 10 electric vehicle charger stations between two port properties over the next year. The cost of the new installations will be paid by two grants totaling up to $643,000. The Port’s financial responsibility for both projects will be a maximum of 10 percent of the total cost, or quite possibly less.
The Port is equally determined to install marine electric vehicle chargers in dedicated slips in the future, as boats with electric propulsion are taking to the seas. Those grants have not yet been landed.
“This is part of a larger effort by the Port Commission to be good environmental stewards and to reduce our environmental impact,” said Todd Nicholson, Executive Director of the Port of Friday Harbor.
All of the new EV charging stations will be accessible to the general public, not just customers of the Port. Fees for charging will be on a metered basis.
The first location is in Friday Harbor Airport’s general parking lot. There will be four to six 240-volt “Level 2” chargers. These will charge one’s EV batteries in a few hours. The capabilities of a Level 2 system are similar to a high-end home system, and radically faster than the older 110-volt systems. The airport EV chargers will be located adjacent to the Pilot Welcome Center, near Bakery San Juan.
The grant source for the airport project is WSDOT.
The second location for new EV chargers will be adjacent to the Friday Harbor Marina offices at 204 Front Street. At this location, four “DC Fast Chargers” will offer metered usage to the general public. Funding is provided by a grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce. This type of charger can charge a vehicle’s batteries in as little as 20 minutes. It is likely they will be the first fast chargers on San Juan Island when they are installed.
“We’re in the design and acquisition phase of [both projects],” said Nicholson. “We would anticipate that those would come online within the next year or so.”
The Port’s existing chargers in the airport’s paid parking lot and a single charger at Friday Harbor Marina for Port vehicles will stay in operation.
OPALCO is involved, as well. The energy co-op will be upgrading one or more transformers to feed the heavy stream of electricity EV chargers demand. To supplement the electricity needed for the chargers, “solar canopies” with solar arrays will generate additional energy to run the chargers and reduce demand on the electrical grid.
The Port Commission’s next ambition in charging is all about boats.
Said Nicholson, “We also have submitted for a $10 million state grant and an $11 million Federal grant and other $2 million state grant. They’re all for port electrification, and they are for charging infrastructure, including a bunch of smart metering solar canopies.
“So they’re a very, very broad port electrification effort. But those grants are exceedingly competitive. It is not likely that we’ll get those. [But] we have a shot. And so we’ll see if we do get those, then that’s fantastic. And we’ll make a lot of electrification headway quickly. If we don’t get them, then we’ll continue to peck away at those goals with the funds that we have available.”
“The goal,” Nicholson added, “is to make to make Friday Harbor an electrical boat hub in the middle of the Salish Sea. But in order for electric propulsion to work well in the Salish Sea somewhere, [charging centers] have to be on Orcas Island or San Juan Island or somewhere with good infrastructure.”
