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Local leaders break ground in Shelby Farms Park Tuesday, Jan. 24, on the region’s first solar-assisted electric vehicle charging station.
The 10 a.m. ceremony is the latest milestone in the countywide effort to establish dozens of charging stations for electric cars.
In April, Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division officials announced a list of 69 proposed sites for the charging stations in Shelby County, including Shelby Farms.
Four non-solar charging stations debuted in July in the Peabody Place parking garage for use by hotel customers.
The Shelby Farms Park charging station, slated to be built at the visitors center off Farm Road, is a different model. The solar panels double as the canopy over parking spaces that include the vehicle chargers. A separate transformer and connection will run to the local power grid. Because the stations are built in modules, a two-car station can be expanded to handle 10 or more cars if there is demand.
The charging station is a joint venture of the park conservancy, Tennessee Valley Authority, MLGW, the Memphis-Shelby County Office of Sustainability and the Electric Power Research Institute of Knoxville.
