The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Thursday that the agency will almost double its funding for electric school buses to close to $1 billion after school districts from all 50 states applied for rebates.
Electric school buses are quickly taking over streets around the US as school districts and state leaders see how they can benefit the communities they serve in.
According to Dominion Energy, a power provider promoting the use of EVs for a cleaner and sustainable future, replacing one diesel bus can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54,000 pounds annually.
With help from Dominion’s initiatives, the second largest electric bus fleet in the US just crossed 500,000 service miles. By implementing EV buses, Virginia school districts were able to avoid 447.7 short tons of greenhouse gases.
These toxic fumes are known to creep into the bus’s interior while the bus is idling, harming the health of students taking them every day. A 2002 Yale study found dangerous particle levels were five to ten times higher while buses were stopped.
Although new standards have come along since then, it’s still not enough to limit the exposure when you can cut it out altogether.
Not only do electric school buses produce zero emissions, but they can also save school districts money on fuel and repair costs in the long run. For example, The Modesto Unified School District in California, which ordered 30 Blue Bird EV school buses, expects to save $250,000 a year on fuel.
With federal and many state funding options, there’s never been a better time to convert to an all-electric school bus fleet.
EPA doubles funding for electric school bus fleets across the US
The EPA Clean School Bus Program, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provides $5 billion in funding for electric school buses through the next five years.
The first round of funding, announced in May, was supposed to free up $500 million, but after overwhelming demand from school districts across all 50 states, the EPA will now be almost doubling it to $965 million.
The EPA received about 2,000 applications, amounting to nearly $4 billion in funding, with over 90% submitting for zero-emission electric school buses. Sue Gander, director of the electric school bus initiative at the World Resources Institute, highlights the demand for fully electric options, claiming:
There’s more to the story. The overwhelming demand for electric school buses, over any other fuel type, is striking. Applicants across the country chose electric buses over propane at a rate of 10 to 1. There’s no doubt we’re entering a new, electric era in student transportation, one with massive benefits for our kids’ health, climate and the economy.
With requests for over eight times the initial funding round, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said on the program’s success thus far:
America’s school districts delivered this message loud and clear – we must replace older, dirty diesel school buses. Together, we can reduce climate pollution, improve air quality, and reduce the risk of health impacts like asthma for as many as 25 million children who ride the bus every day.
The EPA said it’s “moving swiftly” to review applications and expects the list of winning applicants to be released in October 2022. Applicants will be selected through a lottery-based system.
Another $1 billion round of funding for electric school buses will be in the Fiscal Year 2023, according to the EPA. The agency plans the next funding program to launch in the next few months, including a grant competition.
However, more may need to be done. Senator Carper, chair of the senate committee on environmental and public works, talks about the need for further funding, saying:
Given the response to the availability of these dollars, it’s clear that more funding is needed. I look forward to working with Administrator Regan, the rest of the Biden Administration, and my colleagues in Congress to build on this progress so that more communities can realize the clean air and energy saving benefits of these cleaner vehicles.
Will we have access to more funding for electric school buses? Time will tell. If the initial demand is any indication, school districts are ready and willing. It’s time to get the funding to make it happen.
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Multi-million-dollar grants adding up to more than $46 million from the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will help support electrification efforts at several American ports.
The Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT) in Long Beach, California has received a $34.9 million grant from the FHWA to replace 155 on-site commercial trucks and buses with zero-emission vehicles (ZEV). The grant will fund both the purchase of new electric trucks and the necessary charging infrastructure to support them.
LBCT said the grant dollars will allow it to continue its multi-billion dollar investments in more sustainable logistical operations. “Our vehicle electrification project, coupled with previous investments, enables LBCT to achieve a unique status that is reframing the way the world views sustainable goods movement, enhancing community quality of life and climate change,” said Anthony Otto, CEO of LBCT.
“This investment is a huge win for clean air, electrification and the region,” said US House Rep. Robert Garcia. “These federal dollars will make our port cleaner, safer and help us meet our climate goals.”
Container ports used to be some of the dirtiest, most heavily polluted areas in the world. That was bad for everyone – but it was especially bad for the people who lived and worked near them. That’s why any positive change is good. Beyond just “positive change,” however, ports today seem to be leading the way when it comes to electric vehicle and hydrogen adoption.
How things change!
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German equipment manufacturer Kramer showed off a pair of zero-emission equipment options at the Paris Intermat show last week – the 5065e electric wheel loader and 1445e electric telehandler.
Kramer says the quiet operation of its new electric wheel loader and telehandler are ideal for noise-sensitive areas such as city centers, cemeteries and golf courses, hotels, and suburban parks and recreation areas, where it can operate without emitting harmful diesel particulate matter and other forms of air pollution.
Kramer-Werke GmbH is serious about promoting its new EVs in the French market. “That’s why Intermat is an important platform for us,” explains Christian Stryffeler, Kramer’s Managing Director. “We are also looking forward to showcasing our new generation of (electric) wheel loaders and telescopic wheel loaders here.”
Kramer 5065e wheel loader
The 5065e loader is powered a 37.5 kWh, 96V lithium-ion battery that’s good for up to four hours of continuous operation – which is a lot more than it sounds, considering idle time in an EV doesn’t drain batteries the way idling a diesel drains fuel. A 23 kW (30 hp) electric motor drives the electric wheel loader around the job site, while a 25 kW (approx. 35 hp) motor powers the machine’s 40 liters hydraulic system.
Kramer says the battery on its electric loader can be fully charged in just 5.1 hours using a “Type 2 Wallbox” (that’s an L2 charger to you and me). Max payload is 1750 kg, with a 2800 kg tipping load. Top speed is 20 km/h (approx. 12.5 mph).
Kramer 1445e telehandler
The 1445e telehandler uses a 96V battery architecture that’s similar to the one in the wheel loader, but in a smaller 18 kWh or 28 kWh pack. This enables a fleet manager to right-size their equipment’s batteries to provide four hours of run time in different types of work environments. And, also like the wheel loader, a 23 kW (30 hp) electric motor provides the drive while a 25 kW (approx. 35 hp) powers the hydraulics.
Level 2 charging comes standard on Kramer’s electric telehandler, enabling a full charge of the larger, 28 kWh battery in about five hours. Max payload is 1450 kg.
Electrek’s Take
It’s always good to see more manufacturers pushing out electric equipment options. It’s still the “wild west” out there, even more so than in automotive, and Kramer’s offerings seem to be a step behind in some ways (no DCFC capability) and ahead in others (96V where others are 48V), so it’s hard to know where they stand.
The robotics experts at ETH Zurich have developed an autonomous excavator that uses advanced AI to help it complete high-skill tasks without a human operator.
Dry stone wall construction typically involves huge amounts of operator labor. Doing it right requires not just hours of labor, but hours of skilled, experienced labor. At least, it used to. If the crew at ETH is successful, building stone retaining walls will soon become a “set it and forget it” task for robots to complete. Robots like their HEAP excavator.
HEAP (Hydraulic Excavator for an Autonomous Purpose) is a customized Menzi Muck M545 developed for autonomous operation that uses electrically-driven hydraulics to operate an advanced boom arm equipped with draw wire encoders, LiDAR, Leica iCON site-mapping, and a Rototilt “wrist” on the end that makes it look more like a high-precision robotic arm than a traditional heavy equipment asset.
ETH HEAP tech stack
Which makes sense. After all: the ETH guys are roboticists, not skilled heavy equipment operators. So, how does their robot do against skilled operators?
“We are currently outperformed by human excavator operators in placement speed,” ETH researchers wrote in Science Robotics. “Such operators, however, typically require string and paint references with which to register their construction and often a second or third person outside the machine to provide guidance and to insert small supporting stones, gravel, and soil by hand and shovel. In contrast, our process can build complex nonplanar global surface geometries without physical reference markers, does not require a skilled driver or small supporting stones, and provides a full digital twin of the built structure for better accountability and future reuse.”
Translation: the robot is slower, but it gets the job done.
You can watch the ETH HEAP put all its onboard tech to work building a 215 foot long, 20 foot high retaining wall all on its own in the video, below.
Autonomous excavator constructs dry stone wall
The completed project can be seen at Circularity Park in Oberglatt, Switzerland, and illustrates the potential for autonomous equipment to build with irregularly-shaped materials. And with skilled operators in short supply everywhere, the potential to free up operators so they can go where they’re really needed.
That said, the electrically driven hydraulics and high-precision Rototilt wrist on the end of the boom arm’s “claw” alone make this futuristic excavator worth some attention. As more and more manufacturers switch to full electric or even “just” electric drive, research into better solutions for existing hydraulic equipment and expertise could lead to big market wins.
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