watt hour batteries, and they are parked quite a lot,” said Marc Trahand, executive vice president of marketing for Nuvve, a San Diego V2G technology company. V2G stores renewable power in school buses when they’re not in use. The power can then be sold back to the grid or used to power other infrastructure like schools or stadium lights. In an emergency, buses can also be- come rolling generators that provide power where needed. “We can plug that [bus] in and use that
battery for the grid as a great resource for decarbonizing the atmosphere,” Trahand said. “Now the other side of electrifica- tion is, how do we make this affordable? And vehicle-to-grid also has a very big role to play there, in making electric
school buses affordable.” The V2G opportunity has generated nearly
a billion dollars of private investment. In May, Nuvve created Levo, a partner-
ship with Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and Evolve Transition Infrastructure LP, to provide $750 million in financing for vehi- cle-to-grid projects. Boston-based Highland Electric raised $253 million of equity from Vision Ridge and Fontinalis to fund school bus electrification projects. Betting on an increased need for battery
storage, these investors cover the upfront costs to electrify a school bus fleet, in ex- change for annual payments comparable to the existing cost of leasing new diesel buses. “We’re making the bet that we can earn income by leveraging the vehicle batteries
An initiative in Illinois is securing grant funds to electrify buses in six school districts, including Pekin Public Schools. V2G is an additional financing tool being explored.
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