Driving green on Oahu became more convenient this week when Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts and Starwood Hotels & Resorts opened several electric vehicle charge spots in Waikiki to the public.
Guests of the Sheraton Waikiki and The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort, or anyone attending an event, dining at either of the hotels (or who simply wishes to valet-park there) will be able to charge their electric cars at the standard fee for valet parking service. To have an electric vehicle charged, drivers can pull up to the valet in the porte-cochere of the Sheraton Waikiki or The Royal Hawaiian. A valet attendant will drive the vehicle to an available charging station in the parking structure and take care of the entire recharging process. Up to four electric cars can be accommodated at the same time. When the driver is ready to leave the hotel, an attendant will retrieve the recharged vehicle and return it to the driver in the porte-cochere.
In December 2010, Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts’ Sheraton Waikiki became the first Hawaii hotel to install electric vehicle charging stations. Until being made available to the public this week, the charging stations have been used only as part of a collaboration with Better Place, which is deploying electric vehicle infrastructure statewide, to measure vehicle performance, battery-charging metrics, the impact on the electrical grid, driver behavior and the software systems that manage the charging network. As part of the partnership project, Kyo-ya and Starwood have been using two Chevy Volts in their fleet of vehicles and guest shuttles.
Better Place installed the charge spots in the Sheraton Waikiki – Royal Hawaiian parking structure with funding in part from the Hawaii Renewable Energy Development Venture (HREDV), a project of the local nonprofit Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, which allocates U.S. Department of Energy funds. Better Place is continuing to deploy electric car charging networks across the state.
