PORTLAND, Oregon — The Beaverton School District is a leader in the Pacific Northwest when it comes to electric vehicles. The school district, along with many others like Corbett, are the latest recipients of PGE's Electric School Bus Fund, a grant that helps districts cover the upfront costs in the transition to electric buses.
That fund is having a banner year.
"2020 through last year, we were able to fund 30 buses ... then in this next year, it looks like we’ll be able to help get another (25) buses on the road," said Elyssa Lawrence with PGE.
She said the success of the grant is directly tied to the Oregon Department of Environment Quality's (DEQ) Clean Fuels Program. She explained that the DEQ program "helped create a market place, where we could create a revenue stream from our residential customers who create these credits."
The credits are earned by customers who purchase electric vehicles, according to Lawrence. The credits are then sold to industries needing to pay for their excess emissions.
"That money doesn’t come out of customer rates; it’s really what goes into funding these types of grants like electric school buses," Lawrence said.
Starting with a pair of electric buses in 2020 from the first round of PGE grants, the Beaverton School District estimates that it removes about 25 tons of CO2 emissions per year, per bus. Thanks in large part to Federal money and some from PGE's Electric School Bus Fund, the district has 20 electric buses on the roads right now, with plans to expand to 80 — about a quarter of its fleet — in just a year.
"All of those buses are going be assigned to schools that serve our historically most underserved students," said transportation administrator Craig Beaver. "We’re really excited about that. We are going to eliminate emissions and bring the newest most current technology to those students."
The Beaverton School District has big plans in the near future to build a solar roof on top of its two bus depots, generating the electricity locally to store in batteries when needed, as they power their rapidly expanding E-bus fleet.
Meanwhile, first-time recipient Corbett in the Columbia River Gorge is also receiving grants for two electric buses. While they’ll keep two diesel buses in their fleet of 11 for extended trips in the short term, their plan is to have the rest of them be electric within the next 10 years, according to Corbett Superintendent Derek Fialkiewicz.
PGE’s electric school bus fund helps with these plans. They start accepting applications in the fall and announce the recipients each spring.
Chris McGinness is a meteorologist and reporter for KGW News. Email him here and reach out on social media: Facebook, Instagram and X
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