The Oakland Unified School District in California has partnered with Zūm, a school transportation company, to move to a fleet of 74 all-electric buses. zoom
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The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in California’s Bay Area is set to transition its entire school bus fleet to electric buses. With this move, it is expected to become the first large school district in the United States to convert to 100% electric buses with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities.
The school district has partnered with Zūm, a school transportation company, for a fleet of 74 all-electric buses. In addition, the school district will receive two-way chargers, which can not only charge buses but also send stored or excess energy from vehicles back into the grid.
This means that the fleet of electric buses and chargers will double as a virtual power station (VPP). The VPP of the OUSD fleet is expected to send 2.1 gigawatt hours (GWh) annually to the grid, which will save about 25,000 tons of emissions, Zūm reported.
“For Oakland to become the first in the nation to have a 100% electric school bus fleet is a huge win for the Oakland community and the nation as a whole,” said Kim Raney, executive director of transportation for the Oakland Unified School District. Smart Energy International. “Oakland families are disproportionately disadvantaged and impacted by higher rates of asthma and exposure to air pollution caused by diesel fuel. Providing our students with cleaner, quieter transportation in electric school buses will be a game-changer, ensuring they have a fair and stronger chance to succeed in the classroom.” Academic.
OUSD and Zūm collaborate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Clean School Bus Program, the California Air Resources Board through the Heavy Vehicle Incentives Program, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and Clean Mobility Operations programs, and Pacific Gas & Electric. (PG&E) to supply electricity to the OUSD fleet.
According to the California Air Resources Board, the OUSD fleet transports 1,300 students to and from school daily. Soon, students will be able to ride emission-free electric buses in an area prone to poor air quality. A recent American Lung Association report found that Alameda County is one of the most polluted counties to live in the United States; Oakland is located in Alameda County.
Across the country, student transportation includes more than 500,000 school buses, with 90% of these buses using fossil fuels to generate energy. This contributes 8.4 million tons of emissions annually, Zoom reported.
Zūm has set a goal to help electrify 10,000 buses in the U.S. and plans to work on electrifying larger transit fleets in the San Francisco Unified School District and the Los Angeles Unified School District, Electrek reported.
“We at Zūm strongly believe that it is time to move beyond pilot projects and deploy sustainability solutions at scale. Converting the Oakland Unified school bus fleet to 100% electric with VPP capacity is the next step,” Ritu Narayan, founder and CEO of Zūm, said in a statement. “This landmark achievement is a win-win proposition: electric school buses with V2G technology provide students with cleaner, smoke-free transportation and allow us to send unused energy from bus batteries back to the grid, creating a huge impact on grid resilience. “
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