ComEd, Nuvve set to launch V2G pilot program for electric school buses
With the launch of a new pilot program in collaboration with Nuvve, Chicago area utility ComEd is set to become the latest utility to explore the benefits of bidirectional charging using electric school buses to support the grid.
Electric school buses are ideally suited for pulling “double-duty” as both community transit and mobile battery energy storage systems. While they’re on the move collecting and depositing school kids, they’re actively improving the air quality of the communities they travel through by displacing harmful diesel emissions. While they’re parked – whether that’s for hours during the day or days over the summer – the energy stored in their massive batteries can be fed back to the grid when demand peaks.
When it works, the solution offers a win-win for both the cash-strapped school districts, and the utility. The schools can be paid for the energy they divert back to the grid, and the utility gets power that is cheaper and potentially cleaner than what they could otherwise acquire during an unexpected demand spike.
Nuvve, for their part, is going to do everything they can to make sure it works. “Nuvve’s cutting-edge V2G technology transforms electric vehicles into reliable, dispatchable, and monetizable mobile energy storage assets, and our continued innovation—evidenced by our recent groundbreaking AC V2G project with (ComEd parent company) Exelon—positions us at the forefront of this industry,” says Hamza Lemsaddek, Vice President of Technology and Astrea AI at Nuvve. “This pilot will evaluate the value electric school buses can deliver to ComEd and its customers.”
The pilot is part of ComEd’s broader Beneficial Electrification program, which includes a number of business and public sector rebates intended to reduce the barriers to EV adoption by lowering the up front costs of both charging infrastructure and commercial electric vehicles. With the launch of this program with Nuvve, ComEd will begin to collect data that will enable it to shape the future of similar programs in regards to V2G and V2B technology.
“ComEd is excited to launch the Vehicle-to-Grid pilot program in 2025 as we continue with our mission of delivering best in class reliability and customer solutions to advance the equitable adoption of EVs here in northern Illinois,” explains Scott Vogt, Vice President of Strategy and Energy Policy for ComEd. “V2G is the next frontier in our work to support local school districts on developing plans that will help lower emissions, upgrade their fleets, and implement the benefits of EVs and their related infrastructure affordably. We look forward to working with Nuvve, Resource Innovations, and various stakeholders in the region to deploy new technologies that will help bring the environmental and economic benefits of electric school buses into more communities.”
Since launching the last year, these programs have helped catalyze the addition of 3,500 EV charging ports across the region, and placed over 200 commercial EVs on Illinois roads, a number that includes dozens of medium- and heavy-duty EVs and – of course! – electric school buses.
The ComEd pilot will involve four electric school buses in three different Illinois school districts, and (if successful) could eventually lead to more widespread deployment of V2G technology throughout the Chicago area.
Electrek’s Take
Voltera charging expert Matt Curwood was good enough to come on Quick Charge a few months ago to talk about some of the different ways school districts can approach the infrastructure challenges posed by a fresh electric vehicle deployment. I’ve shared that episode again, above, and encourage everyone who lives and works near school buses to go visit a school that has electric buses, and smell the difference cutting that ground-level air pollution can make in a child’s day.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Nuvve.
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Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.
He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.
When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.
EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.
The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.
The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.
A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
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Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.
The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.
Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.
For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.
Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:
Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.
The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.
We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”
They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.
When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.
However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.
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Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.
The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.
The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.
Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.
The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.
“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.
Read more: Thomas Built Buses debuts its next-gen electric school bus
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