The electric vehicle charging stations allow drivers of electric cars to charge their vehicles using renewable energy. UCSD plans to install 21 charging stations in total.

They will be located on the main campus, although three charging stations have already been installed off-campus at the Bachman Parking Structure at Hillcrest Medical Center. Three more charging stations will be installed at the Arbor structure at the UCSD Medical Center.

“These initiatives are all a part of the campus’ effort to ‘green’ the UC San Diego fleet, ” UCSD Director of Sustainable Operations Dave Weil said. “In fact, about 52 percent of UC San Diego’s vehicles use some form of alternative fuel.”

Users of the charging stations will be billed through a network interface, and it will cost $3 for an 80-percent charge. The charging station can be reserved for a maximum of four hours, and users are required to have a campus permit or pay for visitor parking.

Sullivan Solar Power, a residential solar energy company, installed the new electric vehicle charging stations. Funds were provided by the electric transportation company ECOtality through its EV Project, a funded program that deploys electric vehicles and charge infrastructures across the United States.

Sullivan Solar Power is working with ECOtality to install these electric vehicle charging stations at sites in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County.

As of June 2012, over 2,000 charging stations were present in California, and a total of 8,000 in the United States.

All University of California campuses have installed electric vehicle charging stations within the past few years — with the exception of UC Riverside, which is currently undergoing a two-year project to install these stations and other solar utilities on its campus.

In conjunction with the electric vehicle charging stations, UCSD plans to install solar-powered panels on the rooftop of the new Structures and Materials Engineering building at the Jacobs School of Engineering.