Map It: Electric Vehicles and Alternative Fuels

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In today’s news, France announced plans to spend more than $2 billion (1.5 billion Euros) to create a battery-charging network for electric vehicles. In order to make owning and charging electric vehicles less onerous, the government would require charging stations in office parking lots by 2015 and in new apartment building complexes in 2012.

This news reminded me of a very neat resource related to alternatively fueled vehicles in the U.S.. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (a national lab of the U.S. Dept. of Energy) offers a online GIS tool, the TransAtlas, with data on alternative vehicles and fuels.

The TransAtlas can map alternative fuel stations, the vehicle density of hybrid-electric, flex-fuel and diesel vehicles (down to the county level) and the location of hydrogen, biodiesel and ethanol production facilities. You can query the system (use the Query dropdown in the top right) to find information on specific points (ie stations) or select a region to download more details.

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