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Streetlight EV Chargers Prove Cheaper, Faster in Kansas City Pilot, Study Finds

A year of Kansas City data validates streetlight retrofits as a lower-cost way to expand convenient EV charging.

Streetlights could replace traditional EV charging stations in the future
The researchers found that streetlight charging stations, compared to traditional EV charging stations, were more cost- and time-effective.
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Overview

  • Penn State researchers retrofitted 23 municipal streetlights in Kansas City into EV chargers and tracked operations for one year.
  • The peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Urban Planning and Development found lower installation costs, faster charging likely due to dedicated municipal lines with less competition, and reduced emissions versus conventional sites.
  • The project partnered with the City of Kansas City, Metro Energy Center, local utilities, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with funding reported from the U.S. Department of Energy.
  • Site selection followed a three-part framework—demand, feasibility, benefits—using AI models trained on land use, charger density, nearby points of interest, and traffic volume to predict demand.
  • Next steps include adding detailed socioeconomic data and weather information to refine models for equitable deployment and to account for temperature effects on battery performance and charging demand.