JUN 16

The National Renewable Energy Labs and Google have partnered to launch a tool called TransAtlas that maps all existing and planned alternative fuel stations across the country.

The mapping tool allows you to view each type of fuel station as a layer, so you can view one at at time or all fuel types simultaneously.  The seven alternative fuels mapped are hydrogen, propane, electric (shown in photo above), liquified natural gas, compressed natural gas, E85 and biodiesel.  

The tool also allows you to view vehicle density layers for hybrid-electric, flex-fuel and diesel cars.  Electric and hydrogen stations are far behind fuels like E85 and biodiesel, but their locations correspond pretty neatly with the areas where those cars are being driven.  I'd like to think that if more of those types of stations are built in more areas, the corresponding vehicles will follow.

While it's a simple application of Google Maps, it's interesting to see the reality of alternative fuel infrastructure in the country, and how far we still have to go before non-gasoline vehicles have a real chance to survive on American roads.

via Earth2Tech