Electric passenger vehicles might get all the publicity, but there is another clean transportation revolution which is quietly occurring in the United States.
For the past few years, hundreds of school districts have been been transforming their school bus fleets into something more environmentally friendly.
The most significant contributor to the electric school bus revolution is the investment of $5 billion in clean energy electric school buses allocated through the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act in 2021.
This funding is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its clean school bus program.
In an interview, the senior legislative and regulatory policy manager at Moms Clean Air Force, Melody Reis said there has been a “tremendous amount of enthusiasm” for the program.
Reis quoted figures from the World Resources Institute, which estimate as of December 2023, there are 8,570 committed electric school buses across 1,132 school districts or private fleet operators across the country.
This is more than triple the number of districts since the Institute’s first count in the summer of 2021.
Reis added while there is still a large amount of work to be done, the demand for electric school buses continues to grow and they are hoping to see further investment to allow more school districts to make the transition.
“We’ve heard from satisfied school districts in all different parts of the country,” Reis told me.
“Whether you’re in a rural area with longer routes, dealing with cold weather or hot weather, there are many school districts happy with their electric buses and ready for more.”
Another key benefit of the transition to electric school buses is the impact it can health on communities, who are being disproportionately impacted by poor air quality.
The Moms Clean Air Force national manager for health equity, Almeta Cooper said health statistics show a much higher incidence of asthma among children of color.
“The impacts of tailpipe pollution are bad for any child and their bus drivers, but they are even worse in communities of color,” added Cooper.
Cooper said when the program was first announced there were concerns that under resourced communities would not be able to take advantage.
But she pointed to examples like Clayton County in Georgia as an example of an under-resourced community which since October 2022, has been awarded funding for 25 all-electric school buses from the clean school bus program.
Another example is the Steelton-Highspire school district in Pennsylvania.
In April, the school transportation provider First Student hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony there, celebrating the deployment of the first electric school buses in Pennsylvania, funded by the EPA’s clean school bus program.
Steelton-Highspire is replacing six of the school district’s seven buses with First Student’s electric buses, which are being backed by chargers with electricity coming from a 1.7-Megawatt solar array stationed on the Steelton-Highspire campus.
The Moms Clean Air Force Pennsylvania field organizer, Vanessa Lynch, said in an interview the district seems to really be connecting with community as good environmental stewards.
“I do think that this transition makes it easier for people to understand the impacts of clean energy, because it is such an easy thing to agree on,” said Lynch.
Looking ahead, there is another benefit electric school buses could bring in terms of easing the supply and demand on electricity on the grid.
Put very simply, these vehicles are stationary for a large part of the day and could be used as a ‘virtual power plant’ to store energy when there is too much strain on the grid or supply extra power in times when it is needed to meet demand.
The co-founder of charging software management company Synop, Gagan Dhillon said in an interview the electric school bus is the “most relevant use case” when it comes to vehicle-to-grid technology.
Dhillon said school buses are typically on the road for only 20% of the day with very predictable use patterns, so utility companies can rely on them being ready to use.
“An electric school bus has a large battery, which with the right infrastructure and technology can send up to 360 kilowatt hours of energy back to the grid and in a single dispatch period,” he told me.
“We feel school buses have the most relevant use case for this concept,” Dhillon added.
And Mike Finnern, senior vice president and national zero emission fleet lead for the professional services firm WSP, said in an email there is a “ton of movement in the electric school bus market”.
“Our experience suggests that a successful deployment of a zero-emission vehicle fleet requires much more than just the bus,” said Finnern.
“School districts need to consider the full ecosystem, including planning and execution of charging infrastructure, workforce development, operational planning, safety, employee engagement and more.”
Christopher Dean, director of innovation at Dean Transportation, which provides student transportation services to school districts throughout Michigan, said in an email the continued presence of grant funding programs will be critical.
“In addition, while today’s version of electric school buses is suitable for some school bus runs, it is apparent that battery technology and overall vehicle reliability must continue to improve for full-scale adoption,” said Dean.
