Alternative Fueling Station Locator App from the Department of Energy

So: You decided to purchase a car that takes advantage of more environmentally friendly fuel. Congratulations! Now, you need to find a place to fill the tank that offers more than just regular gas.

The new Alternative Fueling Station Locator app from the folks at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory is a must-try. The new iPhone app will find and map the 20 closest stations within 30 miles of your location that sell alternative fuels such as natural gas, biodiesel, E85 ethanol, propane and hydrogen. Got an electric car? This app finds stations offering electricity chargers, too.

How It Works

The app is powered by a trove of data from DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, which has information on more than 15,000 such stations across the country. A variety of filters allows you to search smart for a host of options including specific fuel types you need, payment methods accepted, number and type of electric chargers, types of stations by ownership and more.

Interested in using the data from this app for more than just your iPhone? The app has a widget that can be embedded on a webpage, and the open-source code is available to web developers and the technically savvy via an API.

The Department of Energy’s NREL developed the app as part of DOE’s Clean Cities, a program that strives to help municipalities use less petroleum gas for transportation needs.

Ready to give this and other government mobile apps a test drive? Roll on over to the USA.gov Apps Gallery to download them today.