Davar noted The Mobility House has two pending projects in
the U.S., a V2G and a V2B. The first project is converting 30 school buses in New York to
bi-directional EVs. It also means providing bi-directional char- gers. He said 20 of the buses would be V2G and the remaining 10 would be V2B. At this writing, Davar said the company is awaiting approval
While the World Resources Institute said electric battery storage is growing at record rates, and should be accelerated to bring more renewable energy to the grid, Nuvve predicted that EVs will create a 40-percent increase in power demand requiring a $2 trillion investment in grid upgrades.
of the project from the New York State Energy and Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The second project is in California. “We won [a] California Energy Commission grant to work on
transit buses, where we will prove out the viability of V2B to show that these huge transit buses that have massive batteries could be assets to resiliency during climate emergencies. The Texas cold snap is one example,” Davar said. “Another example is when there are fires and a community loses power because the transmission lines are down. Another is hurricanes or floods like what went on in Kentucky. When you lose power for a week or two weeks, these giant batteries have tremendous potential to be community assets to provide electricity.” Davar explained that V2B does not involve discharging energy to the grid, but directly to the building. “You would not be putting electricity back on the grid, it would be V2X, or a hospital, com- munity center or school. It would be a resiliency hub,” he said. Davar cautioned they would have to take it one step at a time.
“First, we have to prove out that it can work with the vehicle, that’s why we did this in Europe,” he said. “We have already proven out that this can work in Europe. Here, we are going to prove out how these transit buses can be discharged onto the building. That way we don’t have to get the approval of the utility or the regulators.”
Not Ready for Prime Time? While there is a noticeable, federal grant-fed ESB frenzy hap- pening in the U.S., there are those who caution that educators focused on the rose cannot see the thorns. There are critical steps to be taken before the endgame can be reached such as making sure there is an adequate charging infrastructure to support the movement. Analysts and observers also question whether a 20th century
power grid is capable of handling 21st century technology with- out serious upgrades. In January, the World Resources Institute (WRI) called out the
importance of modernizing the grid to increase wind and solar energy storage to be available when they are needed most. “Bat- tery storage is growing at record rates, but these deployments should be accelerated to bring more renewable energy to the grid,” WRI commented. “Additionally, it’s necessary to com- mercialize the next generation of energy storage technologies that can operate for longer durations—increasing from days to weeks. This is critical to ensure that the energy supply is not disrupted, as seen in recent events like Hurricane Ida and last winter’s Texas freeze.”
50 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2022
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