This year, GE unveiled the newest revolution in the electric vehicle movement – the GE WattStation.

According to its web site , GE said the WattStation will provide level two charging for electric vehicles and built in support for two way communication between the vehicle and the station. In addition, GE calls the WattStation “future proof,” saying that it will be ready to support all the latest technologies.

The WattStation won’t be available for retail and commercial purchase until later this year, but according to GE, there are those who are already looking to this device to help accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.

“I think over time more and more people will prefer to pick the electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt,” said NIU Transportation Manager Bill Finucane. “As more cities and more parking decks install more plug in stations to charge these vehicles, I think you’ll find increased use.”

Finucane said part of the problem of purchasing an electric vehicle right now is the infrastructure to fuel it.

“Obviously you’d be able to plug it in at home, but if you drive somewhere that is near the top range for the vehicle you might have some issues trying to find a place to plug it in,” Finucane said.

According to GE, the WattStation would provide a solution for that problem. GE shows its newest creation in its commercials and photos everywhere from cities to beaches. GE’s website states that in addition to making electricity for plug-in cars more available, the station will decrease charging time from 12-18 hours to as little as four to eight.

While Finucane said there are obvious benefits of not having gasoline emission being released into the environment, the WattStation could pose other problems.

“There will be some impact on the environment in terms of greater demands on the electrical grid,” Finucane said. “You have to look at the trade-off of which is going to be better for the environment, or the lesser of two evils so to speak.”

Sycamore resident Morganne Tristan drives a Chevy Volt and said she enjoys her electric car, but her family still owns a gasoline vehicle as well.

“The Volt is perfect for my everyday driving,” Tristan said. “My job and favorite stores are right in the area so I don’t have to go far. But when we take longer trips, we have to take our gasoline-run car because you can’t plug the electric one in everywhere just yet.”

Tristan said she looks forward to increased availability of electricity for her plug-in vehicle.

“I can’t wait until I can drive my Volt wherever I want and not have to worry about searching all over for places to plug it in,” Tristan said.

Finucane said while the university doesn’t currently have any all-electric-run vehicles, they do have 40 hybrids including the entire fleet of University Police Toyota Priuses. The university has been using hybrids since 2003 to cut down on gasoline use, among other reasons.

“It represented quite a significant reduction in the use of gasoline and cost saving for the university,” Finucane said. “We’ve estimated to date that we’ve saved about 130,000 gallons of gasoline since we started using the hybrids.”

While Finucane said that with today’s technology, he doesn’t think the university will ever convert all their vehicles to electric, they have test driven some plug-in vehicles.

“We do have intentions to purchase some electric vehicles when the economy improves and the university budget gets better,” Finucane said. “It’ll be for campus uses. Maybe we’ll have an electric truck on campus that would never leave campus or around campus.”

Finucane said the university has been very proactive in terms of trying to reduce their carbon footprint.

“I think anything we can do to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and petroleum produced fuel in general is going to be good because it will extend the availability of that fuel time wise,” Finucane said. “Personally, I drive a Prius myself, so I think that’s a good idea to be able to reduce that dependency on foreign oil.”