WATCH: Think tank says $100K Tumwater solar-powered EV charger falling short
By Carleen Johnson | The Center Square | Aug 8, 2025
(The Center Square) – Ten months after Tumwater, Wash., installed a solar-powered electric vehicle charger in a city park, new data obtained by the Washington Policy Center think tank indicates the EV charger has not lived up to promises made by city officials.
As reported by The Center Square last summer, city officials touted the off-grid nature of the pilot program’s charger, which relies on solar power and battery backup to avoid straining the grid. The charging station in Pioneer Park is ADA accessible and includes a 110-volt outlet for charging electric wheelchairs and bikes. It is also free to use by the public.
“This will be especially helpful in areas where we don’t have existing electrical capacity, or we don’t want to trench through things like athletic fields,” Alyssa Jones Wood, the city’s sustainability manager, said at the time. “This is a pilot, so it has the opportunity to scale up if successful.”
The Washington State Department of Commerce awarded Tumwater a $87,052 grant to install the charger and for maintenance. The city matched that grant with $12,742 from its General Fund allocation for Sustainability Initiatives.
“When the system was installed, it was claimed it could provide 300 miles per day,” Todd Myers, WPC’s vice president for research, wrote in a Thursday blog. “On average, the charger has delivered less than 8% of that amount, about 22 miles per day.”
In a Thursday interview with The Center Square, Myers elaborated on the data.
The Center Square's Carleen Johnson Interviews the Washington Policy Center's Vice President for Research, Todd Myers
“After 10 months in service, the system has delivered 1,700 kilowatt-hours of electricity to EVs, the equivalent of 6,800 miles worth of charge for a Tesla Model 3, in all that time,” he said.
Myers noted he was extremely skeptical from the beginning that the project could generate anywhere near what the city projected.
“Tumwater, Wash., is not Phoenix, Ariz. It is literally the worst place in America for solar power … and that's just because it's cloudy most of the time,” he observed.
He noted the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has a solar radiation map for all parts of the country. Outside of Alaska, Western Washington fares the worst in terms of sunshine received.
“So, they say it is still reducing CO2 emissions. It has delivered 1.7 megawatt hours of electricity. That's about 1,400 pounds of CO2. That is nothing,” Myers explained. “On current prices, that's worth about $37. So, you spent $85,000 to save $37 in the first 10 months.”
He noted that even stretching out the benefit over time does not translate into a worthwhile investment.
“Let’s say this lasts for 20 years,” Myers said. “It won’t, but let's say it lasts for 20 years. That's less than $1,000 of value that you spent $85,000 extra today for. So, it's incredibly wasteful.”
Project supporters in Tumwater indicated they would partner with a company to collect data on usage for the solar EV charger.
“When I reached out to Tumwater to ask them, ‘Can you send me the data?’ what they said was that the company that was providing more granular detail on the data went out of business last year,” Myers told The Center Square. “So, all they have are just sort of the raw data from the system that they can download. They don't have type, and they don't have who's using it .... it's just raw data.”
Myers argues that Washington’s EV charger grants encourage waste by distorting the costs and benefits.
“This is a common problem, which is that cities like to say, ‘Look, we're on the cutting edge. We're leaders in this.’ And then they go out and they buy technology and then the technology either fails, or the company goes out of business,” he said. “We've seen this in lots of places.”
Tumwater Communications Manager Jason Wettstein responded to a request for comment about Myers' criticism.
"People across the country are working to find ways to reduce harmful air pollution that is warming our planet and contributing to natural disasters, and learning through pilot projects like this contributes to that important objective,” Wettstein emailed The Center Square.
“A goal of this pilot project was to increase the amount of publicly available EV charging, and this seemed like a cost-effective way to do that. One other aspect that is harder to monetize is the fact that Pioneer Park floods. The Beam unit, unlike other traditional chargers, is flood-proof up to 9.5 feet.”
Myers noted that city and state officials using taxpayer money for environmental projects that don’t pan out provides skeptics with more ammunition.
“This has sort of become a metaphor for Washington state's climate policy, where we make all these big promises. We do press releases. We brag about what a leader we are. And then a year later, we find that none of those promises have been met, and a lot of money has been wasted for no environmental benefit,” Myers said. “We know how to do things for the environment where we can deliver on the promises and results. Politicians just choose not to, and they need to be held accountable for it.”
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