California invests millions in electric school buses
Twin Rivers Unified School District leads the way
Twin Rivers Unified School District leads the way
Twin Rivers Unified School District leads the way
California is changing the way that kids go to school -- replacing dirty diesel buses that pollute the air with something cleaner and greener.
“The electric school bus will be the school bus of the future,” said David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission.
That future is electric at the Twin Rivers Unified School District in Sacramento, which just received five new electric buses this week. The district has a total of 29 zero-emission school buses, or roughly 1 out of every 4 buses in operation.
“Twin Rivers is the first district in the country to have a large fleet,” said Tim Shannon, the transportation services director for the Twin Rivers Unified School District. “We are currently the largest fleet in North America."
It’s a big investment for a cash-strapped district that now sees itself on the cutting edge of technology.
“The kids love them,” said Nancy Jensen, a school bus driver instructor with the district. “They think it's cool to be on something that is state of the art.”
Those electric buses provide “clean air for kids and community, and it will help reduce the rates of asthma,” Shannon said.
The California Energy Commission spent $90 million to put 200 electric buses on the road across the state. And even though they are expensive -- costing about $340,000 each, compared to less than $200,000 for a diesel bus -- California believes the investment will pay off in the long run.
Electric buses are more durable than diesel buses and with far fewer moving parts.
“A diesel bus has 2,000-plus moving parts in it,” Shannon said. “And an electric bus has 26, so there’s less parts to maintain and less parts to wear out.”
The electric buses use something called regenerative power to brake, so when Jensen is driving, she simply takes her foot off the accelerator to slow down.
“And that allows the bus to put more juice back in the batteries,” Jensen said. And that “allows you to go further.”
As a result, drivers won’t have to use the brakes as much.
“And, we're finding that our brake systems are lasting much longer, which means less maintenance, which means a big savings for our school district," Jensen said.
In the middle of the day when the electric buses are not on the road, they can use surplus solar energy from the grid.
“This is essentially an electric vehicle Happy Hour,” Hochschild said. “They are sucking that surplus power off the grid and putting it into the buses.”
The cost of charging an electric bus is about 19 cents a mile, compared to 87 cents a mile in fuel costs for the diesel bus, Shannon said.