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    Electric Fleet firm delivers dozen Blue Bird EV Buses to Illinois school district

    Dec. 13, 2022
    Equipped with vehicle-to-grid capability, Blue Bird’s electric buses will allow Highland to coordinate with local utility firms to manage vehicle charging and send back stored energy to the grid as needed
    Image credit Blue Bird
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    Energy equipment and solutions provider Highland Electric Fleets is working with bus manufacturer Blue Bird to help Hardin County Community Unit School District 1 (CUSD 1) in Illinois deploy clean electric school buses.

    The school district has placed an order for 12 Blue Bird Type C electric school buses through Highland. The zero-emission buses are partly funded by a $4,740,000 grant through the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2022 Clean School Bus Rebate Program.

    Equipped with vehicle-to-grid capability, Blue Bird’s electric buses will allow Highland to coordinate with local utility firms to manage vehicle charging and send back stored energy to the grid as needed.

    “Many school districts across America are committed to reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions and improving student health by shifting to clean electric school buses. However, the upfront purchase price of electric school buses often represents a barrier to entry,” said Britton Smith, Senior Vice President of Electrification and Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Bird. “It is our goal to reduce the total cost of ownership of electric school bus fleets to be on par with or below the investment needed for current diesel fleets.”

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    The fleet electrification-as-a-service offering of Highland allows third-party fleet managers and school districts to avoid the complexity and upfront costs of electrification, as well as accelerating the adoption of clean student transportation.

    “Highland makes it as simple and affordable as possible for school districts and fleet managers to upgrade to two or 300 electric buses today,” said Duncan McIntyre, CEO of Highland Electric Fleets, which has more than 385 electric school buses under contract till date. “Electric school buses provide clean, quiet, and reliable student transportation and also serve as energy assets in the community, contributing to grid reliability and resiliency during extreme weather events. We are excited to work with Blue Bird to help Hardin CUSD 1 and other Illinois schools electrify their fleets.”

    The EPA recently awarded around $1 billion in funding to school districts for over 2,400 clean school buses across all 50 US states. The funds will also help recipient organizations to set up the required clean energy charging infrastructure.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.