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HOUGHTON -- If you live in Houghton or you are simply just visiting, you can now fill up your tank with electricity.

Students and professors from Michigan Tech, along with the public, celebrated the installation of an electric vehicle charger in the 5th & Elm Coffee House parking deck.

“This is the first one in Houghton. We’ll expect probably in the coming years, more in Houghton and around the U.P. as well. Marquette has installed a couple of them already, but they’re not operational yet, so this is the first one where an electronic vehicle owner can charge their car in the U.P.,” said George Dewey, associate professor in civil engineering at Michigan Tech.

One of the challenges electric vehicle owners face in this area is finding a place to charge up when they are away from home.

“In order to get to larger distances, the commuting distance that most EVs currently have are going to need charging stations in the public, so public charging stations are something we’ll see a lot of in the future,” Dewey said.

Once an electric vehicle owner pulls in, all he or she has to do is unhook the charger from the wall and plug it into their car.

So how does it all work? The car has a generator on board, and after a full charge, the car gets about 30 to 40 miles to the charge. Once the car is plugged into the charging station, the dash board lights up green which informs the driver that it is working.

The installation of the charging stations started as a student project, and 27 Michigan Tech students worked with General Motors to find out more ways to get electric vehicles on the road.  

The next charging station will be installed on Michigan Tech’s campus.