There is now a network of electric charge-points on Mull! They have been installed as part of a wider Scottish Government initiative to promote and enable electric vehicle transport, and reduce carbon emissions. The Mull network will hopefully encourage residents to think about electric cars and enable visitors to bring their electric cars to the islands.
Last year the Mull and Iona Community Trust installed the first 2 electric car charging points, one in Bunessan at the Castaways charity shop, and one at An Roth, the community trust offices in Craignure. The funding which came from the Energy Savings Trust had a condition attached in that the electricity has to be supplied free of charge. MICT needed someone to sponsor the electricity costs – at that time we could not see how we would be able to install a charge-point here so we said we would do this for the Craignure one. Someone from the Ross of Mull has covered the cost of the one in Bunessan. The General Manager of MICT now has an electric car and he can get from Calgary (where he lives) to Craignure 3 times before needing to charge his Nissan Leaf.
Behind the scenes over several months, if not a year MICT have been working away to try and increase the number of electric charge-points on the island. Finally, earlier this week, the next 3 charge-points have been commissioned and are now up and charging. One of them is here at Treshnish! They are not very beautiful things, charging points, so I will post photographs of the wonderful day we have had here today instead.
Currently then (no pun intended) there are places to charge your electric car at Treshnish, Tobermory Fish Company and Am Birlinn – all north of Salen – and at Craignure and Bunessan, south of Salen. There will be more – with hopefully one at Fionnphort coming on stream next. We are working on a map to show which type of charge-point is where on the island and I will add that to the blog once it is done.
Our faithful old ‘blue van’ met its end recently and we are now looking at what to replace it with. I have done a Business Transport Review with the Energy Savings Trust, which I hope will help us make the right choice of replacement van. I would like an electric one, but they are probably beyond our budget. Watch this space!
