Arlington Getting Electric School Bus With Help Of Grant

ARLINGTON, MA — The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's Accelerating Clean Transportation Now (ACTNow) program has awarded Arlington and its partner, PowerOptions, a $200,000 grant to bring cleaner transportation to the state. As part of the project, PowerOptions and Arlington will retrofit or replace an existing diesel school bus with an all-electric drivetrain.

The ACTNow program will promote a group procurement of electric school buses for the town and other PowerOptions consortium members.

"We are starting with this first bus," Superintendent Kathleen Bodie said in a statement. "If the project produces the expected results, Arlington has the potential to see significantly reduced costs of ownership for our entire fleet of school buses, while also making the air cleaner and achieving our sustainability goals."

Arlington and PowerOptions have been partners since 2015. The town's membership in the consortium allows PowerOptions to help Arlington meet its energy goals. This project represents the next phase in the partnership, expanding clean transportation options.

The goal of the ACTNow project and PowerOptions-Arlington partnership is to bring down the total cost of ownership for electric buses and fleet vehicles using a group procurement model, which will include third-party contracts solicited through an RFP process for equipment, vehicle charging, maintenance and potentially financing.

"By leveraging the buying power of our 450 members, we will be able to scale electrification of our members' fleet vehicles through lower total costs of ownership of electric buses and other fleet vehicles over traditional diesel," PowerOptions President & CEO Heather Takle said in a statement.

The bus will be Arlington's first all-electric heavy-duty vehicle, Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine said.

MassCEC's ACTNow program supports clean transportation initiatives that help reduce the cost and advance the market for low carbon transportation technologies across the Commonwealth. The Program provides grants to applicant teams that pilot innovative, replicable clean transportation business and service delivery models. The Arlington-PowerOptions grant is one of nine awarded by MassCEC’s ACTNow program totaling $1.4 million.