The new electric vehicle charging station is fully operational at Custom Seafood Processors in Soldotna. This news follows the ribbon-cutting ceremony that was held last September at AJ’s OldTown Steakhouse and Tavern in Homer, which is part of nine EV fast-charging stations that are to be installed on a statewide network. That ceremony was hosted by the Alaska Energy Authority and FreeWire Technologies, and, at the time, it was recognized as Alaska’s first ultrafast EV charger, which has now been installed in Soldotna.
AEA Executive Director Curtis Thayer previously explained the difference between fast EV charging stations and ultrafast EV charging stations:
“What you normally have is you’ll have a level 2 charger and then a fast charger. What’s kind of the next generation after that is the ultrafast chargers. It just happened that the vendor that AJ’s Steakhouse is working with, FreeWire, has what they call an ultrafast charger. They are going to be installing three along the corridor. The requirement that we had was that they’d be fast chargers, meaning you could charge within a full charge under an hour where the ultrafast chargers literally, for every ten minutes, will get you 100 miles. So it might take 20 to 30 minutes for those vehicles to fully charge. The technology is changing very rapidly.”
The Alaska Energy Authority was awarded nearly $1 million in grants to support the installation of eight Level 2 chargers and 15 Direct Current Fast Chargers at nine sites across Alaska, in hopes of locating one fast-charging station approximately every 50 to 100 miles along the state’s highway system. Other EV stations along the state’s road system includes Grizzly Ridge Lodge in Cooper Landing, the Seward Chamber of Commerce, the Dimond Center in Anchorage, the Jack River Inn in Cantwell and multiple Three Bears Alaska locations in Chugiak, Trapper Creek and Healy.
Thayer says the next phase of implementing EV charging stations includes the Alaska Marine Highway System route and locations that would include Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Yakuktat, Cordova, Kodiak, and even in Rural Alaska.
The unit offers both CHAdeMO and CCS charging options, while allowing you to pay using the EVConnect App, credit card, ApplePay, GooglePay, or Samsung Pay.
