The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities awarded a contract funded by a federal grant to Rowan University to conduct a study and create an actionable plan to improve access to clean transportation in under-served communities throughout the state.
The two-year, $100,000 grant is funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s State Energy Program. It will support Rowan conducting a feasibility and market analysis on plug-in Electric Vehicle infrastructure and usage programs specifically focused on low-income populations and multi-family dwellings.
“New Jersey’s energy future must be as fair as it is clean,” NJBPU President Joseph Fiordaliso said. “Initiatives like this statewide Electric Vehicle (EV) study move us decidedly in that direction because they will help us ensure that all communities in New Jersey have access to transformative technologies like EVs.”
The goals of the electric vehicles study are to create a plan to improve access to electric vehicles and their related infrastructure for under-served communities; and to facilitate the installation of electric vehicle infrastructure at multi-family housing locations that currently have no access to electric vehicle charging.
The grant awarded to Rowan is aligned with the New Jersey Partnership to Plug-In, a statewide partnership to build necessary infrastructure to support EV ownership to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The partnership, which is co-led by NJBPU, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, will create a strategic and streamlined framework to support New Jersey’s electric vehicle ecosystem, with the goal of registering 330,000 zero emission vehicles by 2025.
The State Energy Program provides funding and technical assistance to states, territories and Washington, D.C. to advance energy initiatives and security, and reduce energy waste. The NJBPU says the competitive funds are intended to advance innovative approaches for local clean energy development to reduce energy bills, protect the environment by reducing carbon emissions, and increase energy security.
