Vehicle-to-grid technology allows electric school buses to feed clean power back onto the grid when it's most needed.
Electric school buses are better for kids’ health and the climate than their old diesel counterparts. And, a report from our research partners recently found the transition to electric school buses, in addition to keeping diesel exhaust out of developing lungs, could help speed up the expansion of clean energy by providing a critical source of reliable battery storage.
That’s why we’re supporting a new bill from Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado to promote vehicle-to-grid charging for electric school buses. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology enables electric school buses to provide stability, capacity and emergency power to the grid when needed, and potentially to earn revenue for school districts for providing these and other services.
Matt Casale, PIRG’s environment campaigns director, said of the bill: “Kids should be able to get to school without a daily dose of toxic pollution, but many kids today ride dirty diesel buses that can increase rates of childhood asthma. Electric school buses are clean, green and ready to roll, and thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law, we’re going to see even more of them on our streets soon. But the new buses aren’t just public health heroes. If we equip them with vehicle-to-grid technology, they can also send clean power back onto the grid to use when we need it most. As we switch to electric buses, we should also expand the use of vehicle-to-grid technology.”
The Bus Integration Dedicated to Improving Resilience, Eliminating Congestion, and Triggering Innovation Over Numerous Applications and Localities (BIDIRECTIONAL) Act is also supported by Sens. Michael Bennet, Amy Klobuchar, Angus King, Martin Heinrich, and Tina Smith.
State government fleets operate thousands of vehicles, and agencies can use their purchasing power to invest in more electric vehicles. Ask your Governor to lead by example by directing state agencies to purchase electric vehicles.
