Staff report

SALISBURY — The city of Salisbury was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from Duke Energy for a public electric vehicle charging station at Gateway Park, 105 Depot St.

A ribbon-cutting for the charging station is set for 3 p.m. Tuesday at Gateway Park.
The charging station is one of 200 that are being installed across North Carolina with Duke Energy grants.

The $10,000 grant paid for the installation of a dual-port charging station in Salisbury, allowing two electric vehicles to be charged at once.
“For many years, planning and community development aspired to provide a charging station in our downtown,” said Deborah Young, the city’s special projects manager. “There were numerous sites identified as viable options for placement of the station but, after review of the grant criteria associated with the location to major highways, restaurants, shopping and 24/7 access, it was decided that the Depot lot was the best fit.”

This will be the second charging station in Salisbury. In 2015, a charging station was installed in the 100 block of South Lee Street, a joint effort of Nissan, the Wallace family and Brightfield Transportation.
“The city of Salisbury is proud to partner with Duke Energy to introduce this charging station,” said City Manager Lane Bailey. “Sustainability is what we strive for as a community.”

Duke Energy’s EV Charging Infrastructure Support Project provided $1 million to help cities and towns develop public charging stations. Duke will pay 100 percent of the installation costs under the program.

“Over the past decade, Duke Energy has supported the development of several hundred electric vehicle charging stations in North Carolina,” said David Fountain, Duke Energy’s North Carolina president. “Adoption of EVs depends on a robust infrastructure for consumers.”

According to Advanced Energy — an independent, nonprofit organization — there are about 4,700 registered plug-in EVs and about 700 public charging ports across the state.