More than two dozen North Carolina local governments have pledged to transition to 100 percent renewable energy in the coming years. One easy way to do that is by switching over their fleets to electric vehicles.
The N.C. Sierra Club partnered with the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center to host two webinars on resources for local government fleet electrification. The first webinar, in June, covered:
- Vehicle fleet survey results sent to local government fleet managers asking for particular pain points to fleet electrification;
- Discussion of the obstacles raised by the respondents;
- Funding opportunities through the Volkswagen settlement funds and the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES);
- Best practices for electric vehicle adoption; and
- Details on EV purchase prices, technology, ranges, and models.
You can view slides from that webinar and as well as a full recording of the presentation.
In October, a second webinar highlighted how the cities of Greensboro and Charlotte have successfully procured electric buses (Greensboro) and implemented the vehicle fleet to zero carbon by 2030 (Charlotte).
Panelists were George Linney, public transportation manager for the City of Greensboro, and Steve Gucciardi, environmental project manager at the City of Charlotte. Attendees also learned from Stan Cross at Brightfield Transportation Solutions how the City of Raleigh implemented its electric vehicle program, including infrastructure charging and other details. Stan worked with the City of Raleigh over many months to help it move forward in its fleet electrification plans.
While these three large jurisdictions may have more resources at their disposal compared with smaller cities and towns, all of them secured grants to help with the transition. Slides from the second webinar and and the full recording are available online.
North Carolina Sierrans have worked with a number of local governments to help them set targets for their transitions to 100 percent renewable energy, as part of the Sierra Club's nationwide Ready for 100 campaign. We hope these webinars will help Ready for 100 communities and other local governments with detailed guidance on how they can use electric vehicles to help meet their renewable energy resolutions.
The N.C. Sierra Club and the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center plan to hold more informational webinars about helping local governments transition to renewable energy. Please get in touch with Cassie Gavin if you'd like information about attending.