Green technology company Nuvve Holding Corp. (Nuvve) is partnering with several school districts and utilities in California and Colorado to accelerate the electrification of their school bus fleets.
By using Nuvve’s vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, customers will be able to realize cost benefits by allowing Nuvve to use the excess energy in their electric school buses to perform services that help stabilize the grid, according to a news release from the company. In applicable markets, Nuvve will also be able to sell the extra energy back to the grid and these proceeds can be shared with customers or help offset upfront costs of charging infrastructure.
Nuvve's decision to partner with districts and utilities in California and Colorado comes after the company announced plans to form a joint venture, called Levo, with private equity form Stonepeak Partners LP to provide fully financed options for customers that will help bridge the gap between the need to electrify the nation's transportation fleet and the funding available to do so.
"We're helping pave the way for more schools to rapidly electrify their fleets and for more regions to leverage EVs as distributed energy resources," said Gregory Poilasne, chairman and CEO of Nuvve. "These school districts aren't just electrifying their fleets; they're demonstrating that their immediate needs and budget constraints can be addressed through our V2G technology and intelligent bidirectional energy management to create cleaner and healthier rides for students."
In San Diego County, Cajon Valley Union School District (CVUSD) is teaming up with Nuvve to install a total of five Nuvve V2G DC 60kW charging stations at its site this summer with four additional chargers being commissioned for later this fall, according to the company. The plans are reportedly in conjunction with the district’s efforts to expand its electrification program to its diesel warehouse vehicles.
"We're excited to be working with Nuvve because they were an early advocate for school bus electrification and worked hard to find solutions to problems that no one had addressed before," said Tysen Brodwolf, director of transportation at CVUSD. "We see electric and V2G as where school transportation is going, and we want to start planning for that future now."
Another San Diego County district, Ramona Unified School District, is also looking to the future by adding eight Nuvve V2G DC 60kW charging stations by the end of the year to help electrify its bus fleet.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, electric utility company La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) has teamed up with Durango School District 9-R to purchase and install an electric school bus and a Nuvve V2G DC 60kW charging station made possible by a grant aimed at improving the state's air quality, according to Nuvve. This will reportedly be the first V2G installation in LPEA's service territory, enabling the electric distribution cooperative (co-op) to operate with more flexibility, save money on network operating costs, and take advantage of low-cost renewables. The installation is scheduled for early fall of this year, according to Nuvve.
"As a co-op, we have an obligation to lower costs for our ratepayers, and Nuvve's V2G solution is helping us do this," said Dominic May, energy resource program architect at LPEA. "We also have aggressive decarbonization goals, and electrifying school buses in Durango helps us achieve those. It's a win for our ratepayers and students, and we see ourselves demonstrating how V2G can help other Colorado co-ops looking for innovative cost savings technology."
