Electric Buses Doubling as Power Packs

In addition to moving students, electric school buses provide rolling batteries that can support the electric grid and store emergency backup power for school districts.

Electric buses have the capacity to provide additional resiliency to school districts, says Brittany Barrett, a senior manager for the nonprofit World Resources Institute’s Electric School Bus Initiative. “They could supply power for refrigerators so school food doesn’t spoil during a power outage.”

Three California school districts demonstrated in pilot projects they could generate more than $6,000 a year by selling stored electricity from their buses to the grid during high-demand periods, according to WRI.