30 New Electric-Vehicle Charging Stations atop Granada Parking Garage

Added to the views from the top of the Granada Parking Garage are 30 new electric-vehicle charging stations. Emissions from cars and trucks create more than half the City of Santa Barbara’s total greenhouse gas output, and the city added the chargers to help reach its overall goal of carbon neutrality by 2035.

That’s the same year by which California Governor Gavin Newsom wants the sale of new gas-powered vehicles to end. He signed an executive order to that effect on September 23, giving a generous shove to the use of alternately powered cars. (Used cars are exempt from the ban.)

For Santa Barbara, the city now has 40 electric-vehicle chargers in its parking lots at the Granada, library, and waterfront. Alelia Parenteau, who manages the city’s Energy and Climate Program, said the next step was to add a solar array over the Granada’s charge stations to provide power, and shade, once the review process is completed. The full setup could be installed as soon as a year from now.

The chargers are Level 2 universal chargers that run on a 220-volt system through ChargePoint. Cars can plug in at 20 cents per kilowatt hour, except during the peak usage hours of 4-9 p.m., when the cost is 35 cents.

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