Clean Cities Launches iPhone App for Alternative Fueling Station Locations

Alternative fuel stations in the palm of your hand.

iPhone users now have access to a free app that locates fueling stations offering alternative fuels, including electricity, natural gas, biodiesel, E85, propane, and hydrogen. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed the new app for DOE’s Clean Cities program. It is available for download through Apple’s App Store.

The Alternative Fueling Station Locator app allows iPhone users to select an alternative fuel and find the 20 closest stations within a 30-mile radius. Users can view the locations on a map or as a list containing station addresses, phone numbers, and hours of operation.

“If you drive an electric vehicle, for example, you can now use your iPhone to easily identify, contact, and navigate to the charging station that is most convenient for you,” NREL Project Manager Trish Cozart said. “Generally, people don’t search for a station while they’re sitting at a computer; they need this information while they’re out and about, which makes a mobile application the ideal means to deliver it.”

The app draws information from Clean Cities’ Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), which houses the most comprehensive, up-to-date database of alternative fueling stations in the United States. The database contains location and contact information for more than 15,000 alternative fueling stations throughout the country.

“The number of alternative fuel vehicles on the road has been increasing steadily over the last two decades,” Cozart said. “Drivers and fleets have an unprecedented array of options to cut or eliminate petroleum use, and this new app serves as one more tool to facilitate these transitions.”

The AFDC is a comprehensive clearinghouse of information about advanced transportation technologies. The site offers unbiased information, data, and tools related to the deployment of alternative fuels and advanced vehicles.

In addition to the iPhone app, the AFDC provides multiple ways to access and use its alternative fueling station data. The Alternative Fueling Station Locator functions as a “widget,” meaning that users can embed the tool onto their own websites. The data are also available via data feeds that developers can access and use in their own mobile and Web applications. Provided through NREL’s developer site, developers can retrieve the data via a Web services API (application programming interface).

Courtesy of Clean Cities
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/news_detail.html?news_id=21037