On our way!

A new beacon of light for all the supporters of a greener world appeared a week ago. Let me use this humble lighthouse to spread the good news related to… Telephone boxes! What the hell have telephone boxes to do with renewable energies or a cleaner environment?

C’mon! Give it a try!

Nothing?

OK.

Then let me introduce you to one of the brightest and easiest solutions to break the vicious circle of ‘no electric car because of no electric recharge network and vice versa’.

Telephone boxes, something of the past since the widespread emergence of cell phones all over the world (some countries have more cell phones than traditional lines!), will not disappear but will be converted in recharge locations (the equivalent to the twenty century gas stations) for electric cars. A plug and a special card to make the payment are all the elements needed for this big leap forward.

I will explain  more details about it but, firstly, let be proud of my country and my town. Madrid will be the place where this new initiative is to take place. Actually, if you want to see how it works in real life one of these new ‘electric stations’ is already working in Las Tablas, a new neighborhood in the North of Madrid.

Leading the project  are two of the biggest companies in Spain: Endesa and Telefónica, who have signed a contract in order to make this possible. The time frame for the implementation of this initiative is 2800 recharge points before the end of the year in the City of Madrid which will become “the town with a biggest recharge network in the world in 2011”, according to Borja Prado, president of the utility company.

The investment needed to make this dream come true is not that high: €3,000-6,000/phone-box which will be divided between both companies. In Spain there are 15,000 phone boxes available for adaptation to this new use out of a total of 60,000, according to Guillermo Ansaldo, president of the telecommunications company.

The work will take place according to  the requests of the City Councils and the owners of an electric car, who will only have to plug in their vehicle to the ‘phone-boxes’ and insert the payment card. Doing that they will specify  how long they  want  their vehicles to be charged for (one hour fractions and limit of eight hours) which can be interrupted if the user needs  to do so. Just in case someone is wondering, the answer is no. It’s not necessary to remain with your car during the charging process because a gadget guarantees the process.

Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, Mayor of Madrid (nothing to do with Foursquare. It’s not the name of a bar!), has highlighted that together with the recharge points being installed by the City Council in underground car parks, “Madrid will have a total network of 500 recharge locations”. Apart from this, he will make a suggestion to the ’Spanish Federation of Provinces and Cities’ in order to tax  vehicles, not based on their power but on their levels of pollution. This way, electric vehicles will get the maximum rebate on the ‘traffic tax’ (currently up to 75%) and this could be increased to the point of not having to pay any tax at all.

Finally, let me finish with the words of the Mayor of Madrid: “in a few months electric vehicles will be used on a daily basis and in a few years the City Councils in the European Union will forbid  access to city centres of fossil fuel vehicles”. Definitely, we are on our way for a better future.

Not bad for a Monday morning, is it?