With help from the state, a teen-led co-working space and after school center in Wilmington is replacing its diesel bus with an all-electric, zero emissions bus.
DNREC awarded The Warehouse $177,674 for a new electric bus.
The award is the latest investment of the Environmental Mitigation Trust that resulted from the state’s plan to use $9.6 million from the negotiated settlement between Volkswagen and the federal government.
Logan Herring is the CEO of the Warehouse.
He says the new vehicle to grid bus will provide local teens with hands-on opportunities through the nonprofit’s “Energize the Warehouse” initiative, "It will teach our students about being responsible to the environment."
Herring continued, "One thing that the traditional school bus does, it pushes out those toxins and bad air quality for our students on buses and the outside environment and with the V-to-G bus we can teach our students and our teens about responsible uses and how we can not harm the environment."
The new electric bus can connect back to the grid, to not only charge the bus, but to actually provide electricity to the grid. This will allow the Warehouse to achieve enhanced energy savings and energy conservation.
The Warehouse expects to get the new bus in early 2021.
DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin says the electric buses have more than one benefit, "The benefits of this is not only overall air quality in Delaware it really is air quality for our students who are riding those buses."
The Delaware Department of Education also received new, cleaner-fueled school buses operating on clean diesel or propane, according to Garvin, "We're looking at replacing 81 buses with the Department of Education to introduce cleaner buses into their fleet. It's part of the Environmental Mitigation Trust that we're working to do this."
DOE Secretary Susan Bunting notes that another 34 clean school buses could be added next academic year.
