Eight new electric school buses will be coming to San Mateo Union High School District through a $4.4 million grant that will greatly help in the district’s efforts to electrify its fleet of school vehicles.
“This is an exciting opportunity for our district to become a part of the solution to reduce air pollution. We are thankful for the grant from the Carl Moyer Program and look forward to making the transition to the majority of our buses being electric in the next 15 years,” Superintendent Randall Booker said in an email statement.
The grant comes from the California Air Resource Board’s Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program, an initiative aimed at incentivizing agencies to transition to “cleaner-than-required engines, equipment, and other sources of air pollution,” according to the program website.
Acquiring eight new electric school buses is a major step for the district, which is looking to electrify most of its vehicle fleet, currently made up of 36 buses and 20 other vehicles. Most of the funds will go toward purchasing the new buses costing about $400,000 each.
Over time, the district can expect to save between $5,000 and $10,000 annually on fuel with electric buses plus more from maintenance costs, district spokesperson Laura Chalkley said in an email.
School board trustees approved an agreement with Sage Energy Consulting, tasking the consulting firm with helping the district with zero emission vehicle planning and infrastructure support. The firm previously assisted the district with a project to install solar panel systems on the roofs of six campuses.
Under the new project, the firm will create a fleet electrification transition plan, provide grant and incentive assistance, design charging infrastructure at one site, select the best equipment and implement the entire plan.
Phase 1, which will include purchasing the buses and building out the infrastructure needed to store and charge the vehicles, will be complete by the end of 2023. Infrastructure improvements are expected to cost about $1.2 million, including a lump sum payment of $233,400 to Sage Energy for its work.
Fully transitioning the district’s fleet to electric vehicles is anticipated to take about 15 years and will require a combination of funding sources to complete it with dollars coming from the district’s own budget and state grants, Chalkley said.
A number of cities in the county have called out vehicle electrification as a key step in reducing greenhouse gas emission and combating climate change given that emissions from cars are one of the leading contributors of air pollutants.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.