First Student, a school transportation provider, has partnered with two school districts in Illinois to put nearly 40 new electric school buses into service.
First Student will replace 15 of the Westville district's diesel-fueled buses with new, emissions-free electric buses, including 14 Type C IC buses and 1 Type-A Microbird, through the EPA's Clean School Bus Program funding.
The company also is delivering 23 e-buses to the Galesburg school district, replacing the same number of diesel-fueled vehicles.
First Student is working with local utility Ameren Illnois which assisted with installation of the charging infrastructure of the Galesburg project.
It is "critical for Ameren Illinois to modernize the electric grid to prepare for the increased customer demand, including electric vehicles," Andy Parker, direct of Clean Energy Transition, Strategy and Policy for the utility, said in a statement.
First Student has secured more than $400 million in funding from the EPA's Clean School Bus Program for school districts across the country to help replace fossil fuel-powered school buses with zero-emissions school buses. The funding is enough to secure around 1,200 electric school buses for districts across the U.S.
"Electric school buses provide cleaner, quieter, and safer rides to school for students, and we are thrilled to partner with the Westville School District to make this a reality for this community," said Kevin McNamara, First Student Senior Director of Charging, in a statement.
Westville will utilize First Student's above-ground charging solution, First Charge, to support the transition. The charging solution eliminates the need for trenching by reducing construction time and costs by up to 50 percent. Its design allows districts and other medium- to heavy-duty operators to increase their electric fleets more efficiently, adapting easily as fleet sizes grow.
Replacing a diesel school bus with an electric school bus helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54,000 pounds annually.
First Student collaborated with Ameren for covering the costs of the transformer, the installation of the transformer, and any upgrades required on the utility side.
First Student has 390 electric school buses across North America with an additional 2,000 under contract. By the end of school year 2024, First Student will pass 6 million electric miles driven and will reduce carbon emissions by 12,550 tons.
First Student aims to transition 30,000 of its diesel buses to electric by 2035.
