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As a historic 10-day heat wave threatened brownouts across California last summer, a small San Diego County school district did its part to help: It captured excess power from its electric school buses and sent it back to the state’s overwhelmed grid.

The eight school buses provided enough power for 452 homes each day of the heat wave, and the buses were recharged only during off hours when the grid was not strained.

California energy officials have high hopes that this new power source, called bidirectional charging, will boost California’s power supply as it ramps up its ambitious agenda of electrifying its cars, trucks and buses while switching to 100% clean energy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called two-way charging technology a “game changer,” saying “this is the future” during a speech last September, about a week after the heat wave ended.

This year, a bill already approved by the state Senate in a 29-9 vote would require all new electric cars sold in California to be equipped with bidirectional technology by 2030. In the Assembly, two committees approved the bill earlier this month and it is now under consideration by a third.

This two-way charging has big potential — but also faces big obstacles. By 2035, California expects to have 12.5 million electric cars on the road, but it’s an open question how much California can rely on them to feed the grid. Automakers say the technology would add thousands of dollars to the cost of an electric car, and California’s utilities are still sorting out how to pay ratepayers for selling them the kilowatt hours.

The ability to use electric cars, trucks and buses to feed energy back into the grid would be especially helpful during peak times for energy use, such as heatwaves. But relying on vehicles as a year-round power source may not be practical — at least not yet.

“It’s a great idea conceptually…but we haven’t had the time to flesh out the details of what needs to happen for California to be able to power itself on electric vehicles,” said Orville Thomas, state policy director for CALSTART, a sustainable energy nonprofit.

“It should be on the menu of options that California has. Is it going to be the number one option? Definitely not.”

So far, its use has been limited in California. Pacific Gas and Electric has a pilot program — the first in the nation — that lets up to 1,000 residential customers with bidirectional chargers sell power back to the utility. Some school districts also are experimenting with it.

Only about half a dozen electric car models currently are equipped with bidirectional capabilities, including the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Nissan Leaf and Ford F-150 Lightning. Tesla announced recently that all its models will have it by 2025.

Electric vehicles convert one type of energy, alternating current electricity, into another, direct current, which is stored in a battery. Bidirectional charging means that an electric vehicle can convert the energy it has stored in its battery and send it to other sources, such as home appliances or back to the grid.

Willett M. Kempton, a University of Delaware professor who has studied bidirectional charging for more than two decades, said the vast majority of the time a vehicle is parked and not using electricity.

“Five percent of the time you’re using the car and you want to have enough energy — electricity or gasoline — to get to where you’re going and back. But most of the time, it’s just sitting there and some other use could be made of it,” he said.

Kempton said these vehicles, properly managed, could be sources of reserve energy, supplanting backup sources that burn fossil fuels. 

Gregory Poilasne, co-founder and CEO of Nuvve Holding Corp., which sells electric fleet charging services, said a big challenge is that cars are unreliable energy assets. “At any time, somebody might come in and unplug the car,” he said. But he added, as the technology becomes more reliable and affordable, bidirectional cars and fleets should increase. 

The cost: $3,700 per car

In Denmark, bidirectional charging earns electric vehicle fleet owners who sell power to the grid $3,000 per vehicle a year, Poilasne said, adding that this reduces the average total cost of electric car ownership by about 40%.

But citing the high cost, automakers oppose the Senate bill that would mandate the chargers for all new cars sold in California by 2030. It would increase the average cost of an electric car by $3,700, according to an opposition letter written by Curt Augustine of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, Ford and other major auto companies.

About $3,000 of that cost would be adding battery capacity to meet warranty requirements, while other costs are for hardware and software.

“This technology is a competitive matter between vehicle manufacturers and should remain that way,” Augustine wrote. “Not all customers will see an advantage of bidirectional charging, and therefore, should not have to pay more for a technology that they will not use.”

Thomas of CALSTART agreed, saying it should be optional.

“There might be a situation where there are people that want to do it and will pay a little extra for a car that is bidirectional, but there will also be people that just want to use a vehicle for driving,” he said. “Do we raise the price of electric vehicles for everybody?”

But Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Oakland who authored SB 233, said she wants to ensure that automakers don’t reserve the technology for only their higher-end models. She said since the relatively affordable Nissan Leaf has it, it can be widely available.

Skinner said all consumers would benefit from the technology by selling energy to the grid or using the energy in emergencies. But she said another important reason is that it could end reliance on diesel generators during power emergencies like during wildfires.

“If you have an EV you don’t need that diesel generator,” Skinner said. “Why would we want to encourage diesel generators? They’re extremely polluting.”

Jeffrey Lu, an air pollution specialist with the California Energy Commission’s vehicle-grid integration unit, said the state is working with owners to identify the best times to charge — called smart charging — to protect the grid. Bidirectional charging takes the concept a step further, he said.

The Energy Commission is not yet ready to say how reliant California will be on bidirectional charging to provide sufficient power and meet the state’s 2045 mandate for carbon-free electricity.

“We’re fairly early in this process. California is very committed to load flexibility broadly, but where that load flexibility specifically comes from, how many megawatts or gigawatts are coming from any particular kind of resource? We’re working on that,” he said.

California’s utilities are running pilot projects and studying how bidirectional charging might work and how electric car owners could be compensated for selling energy to the grid.

The California Public Utilities Commission has studied the issue for more than a decade, said spokesperson Terrie D. Prosper, including funding pilot projects and establishing two working groups.

Last year many utilities signed a “Vehicle to Everything” memorandum of understanding with car manufacturers, state agencies, the federal government and others seeking to accelerate all aspects of bidirectional charging.

Southern California Edison, which serves about 5 million businesses and residences, wants to go beyond using bidirectional charging as just an emergency backup. 

Chanel Parson, Edison’s director of electrification, said the utility is working on a rate program that would allow customers to sell their power back to the grid every day of the year. 

“By selling it back to the grid when our rates are more expensive, then that actually helps reduce customers’ energy bills. And it could be so economically attractive that they’re actually making money,” she said.

Pacific Gas and Electric, which serves 5.5 million electric customers in Northern California, said it is aggressively looking to build what it calls a robust vehicle-to-grid-integration. It has partnerships with BMW of North America, Ford Motor Company and General Motors exploring bidirectional charging.

The utility last year launched the nation’s first bidirectional charging pilot available to residential customers, offering up to 1,000 customers $2,500 for enrolling and up to an additional $2,175, depending on their participation.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also is conducting a pilot project using a small fleet of its Nissan Leafs. The utility hopes the technology will eventually provide power during peak load times. 

“Five years is definitely within reach,” said José María Paz, the utility’s project manager for vehicle-to-grid integration. “Technology is advancing quite fast.”

School buses are a test case

The electric school buses at the Cajon Valley Union School District in San Diego County are among a number of school district pilot projects in California. Experts see school buses as a good option for two-way charging because they have set routes and are often parked during peak load times between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Nationally, Nuvve has about 350 school buses connected to its platform.

At the Cajon Valley district, eight electric buses sent 767 kilowatt hours of power back to the grid during the heat wave between Aug. 17 and Sept. 9, according to Nuvve.

Working with Nuvve, the buses power up when energy is less expensive, said Tysen Brodwolf, the district’s transportation director. Brodwolf said there are still several quirks, including the chargers not communicating properly with the grid or someone improperly plugging in a bus.

“But we’re getting there every day,” Brodwolf said. “We’re working through all those bumps and obviously, when you take on a pilot project, you have to take that into consideration that things aren’t necessarily going to go smoothly.”

How California’s electric cars can feed the grid and help avoid brownouts is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A coast-to-coast electric vehicle road relay recently stopped in Cleveland and highlighted the need for equity in the transition to electric vehicles. 

Drive Electric Northeast Ohio welcomed the Route Zero Road Trip for its June 11 stop at the new headquarters of the Cleveland Foundation. 

The foundation chose the location to promote equitable growth in the Midtown and Hough neighborhoods, a historically redlined area where a majority of residents are Black and median household incomes are less than half of Ohio’s statewide median.

The Route Zero Road Trip is an electric vehicle tour from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., that began last month. Drive Electric Northeast Ohio worked with the Cleveland Foundation to host the stop at the foundation’s new headquarters, which features a solar-powered carport, to draw attention to the neighborhoods and the importance of making sure that people at all income levels can take advantage of the shift toward electrification.

“We believe everyone should be able to access EVs and to have a clean energy charging infrastructure providing benefits beyond just a clean, quiet, fun ride,” said Michael Benson, vice president of Drive Electric Northeast Ohio. He’s also a co-owner of Command Consulting, a Wadsworth firm that advises on electrification, microgrids and shared services.

Beyond being electric car enthusiasts, Drive Electric Northeast Ohio focuses more broadly on electrification, Benson said, particularly the “chicken-egg problem of EVs and EV charging.” Ideally, he said, batteries could store electricity from solar arrays, which then could charge electric vehicles.

Both solar energy and the development of electric car charging in the area appealed to Keith Benford, who attended the Route Zero Road Trip event and said he lives in the Midtown-Hough neighborhood.

“It’s the new technology. They’re going with all-electric cars. And we can kind of capitalize on that by having charging stations in our area, and having the solar arrays.” Benford said. “We’ve got a lot of building that’s going to happen around here in our neighborhood. And that would be a perfect opportunity when the buildings come up to have solar.”

People in the Hough neighborhood have already shown interest in developing clean energy. The Hough Block Club has been working for several years to develop a community-based solar array in the area.

“Everyone in that group is committed to the project, but the timeline is getting stretched out a little bit longer,” said Jonathan Welle, executive director of Cleveland Owns, which has provided technical assistance to the Hough Block Club. While there’s no definite date for completion, the Hough Block Club had an environmental assessment completed earlier this year, Welle added.

Neither Cleveland Owns nor the Hough Block Club organized the electric car event on June 11. Yet Welle agreed that Hough and other disadvantaged neighborhoods should be at the table as electrification, the move to electric vehicles, and other parts of the clean energy transition continue.

The neighborhood “has been a center of disinvestment and capital strike for decades, due to racism and systemic injustice,” Welle said. So, he added, residents there can help create a new system to avoid those problems.

The City of Cleveland’s Office of Sustainability & Climate Justice also is working to get more electric vehicle charging capacity in the city’s neighborhoods. A charging station opened last fall at the Frederick Douglass Recreation Center in the Lee-Harvard neighborhood. The Cleveland Foundation’s chargers are currently available only to staff and visitors.

Several others are in the works, said Elizabeth Lehman, who is the built environment project manager at the city’s Office of Sustainability & Climate Justice. Two stations with a total of four ports will be at the Canal Basin parking lot near the Cuyahoga River. A station with two ports will go in at Cleveland Hopkins Airport’s red lot. And charging stations for the West Side Market and the downtown Willard Garage are part of a recently approved project by the Northeast Ohio Area Coordinating Agency, whose list of planned charging sites also includes dozens more locations throughout its five-county planning area, including several Cleveland Public Library branches.

Additionally, the city of Cleveland requested bids earlier this year for installing electric chargers throughout the city. “We hope to have a vendor selected soon,” Lehman said. “This project will also help us to determine the total number of stations that we hope to have available citywide over the next couple of years.”

The city’s bidding documents note that preference will be given to contractors who plan to work in communities that are marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution, based on the federal government’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool. The tool shows most areas in the city are disadvantaged and would qualify under the criteria.

Preference will also go to contractors who can propose a no-cost or low-cost rate structure for low-to-moderate income consumers, specifically for those who use charging stations within the city’s business districts, the bidding materials said.

A March addendum to the bidding materials also noted the city’s intent to support the winning bidder in pursuing federal funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation’s website currently shows July 28 as the deadline for some of those grants.

Electric vehicle tour highlights need for equitable charging access in Cleveland is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A small but growing number of Minnesota electricians are finding steady work installing residential electric vehicle chargers.

Minnesota has around 35,000 electric vehicles on the road today, but that number is expected to rapidly grow in the coming years as more models become available. The state is using federal funds to help build out a public charging network along major highways, but even so, research suggests most drivers are likely to mostly charge at home. 

Some will simply have to plug into an existing outlet in their garage, but many will need electrical upgrades, especially those with older homes or those who want to take advantage of faster charging times. Participating in certain utility programs may also require the installation of new equipment.

That’s creating an opportunity for electricians like Adam Wortman of St. Paul, who installed an electric vehicle charger at the home of a clean energy advocate four years ago and has since retooled his business to focus almost solely on similar projects.

“It’s where I see the demand,” Wortman said, “and from a business standpoint, it’s nice to have a specialty,” 

It’s unclear exactly how many electricians have decided on a similar path, but anecdotally it’s more than a few. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292 has trained and certified more than 400 electricians over the past two years to install commercial electric vehicle chargers along state and federal highways, but residential installations are more commonly non-union contractors.

“What I’ve seen is that with more electric cars and with more of the demand for electric car chargers, a lot of these smaller shops seem to be picking up work,” said Andy Snope, business representative and legislative and political director for IBEW Local 292. “They are getting a niche and a reputation.”

The market for electricians installing vehicle chargers is bifurcated into commercial and residential projects. He and others estimated that dozens of electrical firms install chargers, but just a handful focus primarily on chargers. Firms attract jobs through word-of-mouth advertising and references from vehicle manufacturers or utilities such as Xcel Energy. 

“It seems like kind of an underworld niche for electrical contractors who are usually smaller but are getting a lot of this work, which is great for a small business,” he said.

Paul Hanson, energy service sales representative for Connexus Energy, said the cooperative recommends that customers getting vehicle chargers reach out to Wortman and a handful of other contractors who specialize in installations and have had good reviews over the years. Hanson said he’s started hearing from solar and heating and cooling companies that want to get on the utility’s list of preferred charging installers.

“Everyone is trying to get their hand into the electric vehicle market,” Hanson said, adding that Connexus saw a 90% increase from 2021 to 2022 in members enrolled in its off-peak vehicle charging program.

Electricians working on vehicle chargers generally gain their first experience working with Tesla, which had the first electric vehicles on the market. Many electricians bought Teslas early and discovered other buyers were struggling with firms that knew anything about chargers.

Bryan Hayes, founder and owner of Bakken Electric LLC, bought a Tesla in 2012 and moved from providing general residential electrical services to installing vehicle chargers. Though Hayes had been an electrician for two decades, he wanted a change.

“My reason for doing it was more ideological,” he said. “I wanted to do something that leaves a legacy of making the world a little better place than I found it.”

Hayes built a staff of six electricians who have installed over 4,000 chargers in the Twin Cities region, ranging from garages to apartment buildings to downtown Minneapolis ramps. His projects come from recommendations from electric vehicle manufacturers and word-of-mouth advertising.

One area of growth has been installing chargers in multifamily buildings. Hayes created a separate company, U.S. Charging, to partner with Tesla to install its commercial chargers in multifamily buildings. “Condominiums and apartments [and] hotels are now a big focus of my business,” he said.

St. Paul-based Sherman Electric owner Jim Sherman has installed thousands of vehicle  chargers and collaborated with Xcel Energy on its Accelerate at Home charging program several years ago. Installations represent 40% of his business, with working at restaurants a second specialty.

“I think the market is getting more specialized and more niche than ever,” Sherman said. “I know contractors that only work on hospitals, and I know contractors that only do apartment buildings.”

Part of the specialization comes from building codes that have become stricter and more demanding. Sherman and his staff of four assistants developed expertise and an understanding of building codes by concentrating on vehicle charging and a handful of other industry sectors, primarily restaurants.

The charging sector is new enough that inspectors often call Sherman with questions and situations they encounter. Homeowners who suffered poor installations pay him to correct the mistakes.

The biggest challenge lately has not been codes or charger technology but instead educating newer EV customers. The early electric vehicle buyers had few questions because they had done their homework and understood the technology.

“My average phone call now is about 20 minutes to sell a customer because I have to educate them about how [the charger] works, how the cars work, how the cars charge, how the power works — everything,” Sherman said. “The early adopters, the Tesla people, knew their stuff. Now it’s getting to be a wider, broader range of people driving electric vehicles.”

In the Twin Cities, home and multifamily building owners typically pay $2,000 to $3,000 to install a Level 2 charger, which provides from 20 to 50 miles per charging hour. Level 1 charging, in contrast, requires a common outlet and no electric system upgrade but charges vehicles at just two to five miles per hour. 

Wortman said Level 2 chargers can require homeowners with attached garages to add another circuit to their electric panels. He installs a separate meter for detached garages and usually upgrades the building to a 240-volt system. Then, typically, he has the homeowner pay Xcel or their utility to drop a line from its transmission grid to power detached garages.

While there’s no average day for Wortman, he usually has two to three installations lined up. Many times, he and other electricians will pick up small jobs like changing out or adding plugs or other repairs in addition to installing chargers.

Clients say electricians are hard to schedule for smaller jobs and are happy to pay them to do extra work, he said. He and other electricians also consult with clients on federal tax and utility rebates they can use to reduce their costs. 

Multifamily apartments and condos present different obstacles. Electricians sometimes must connect chargers to the electric systems of clients living several floors above the garage. Or they work on managed charging that moves electricity around to different cars, a common solution to serve the growing number of EV drivers living in apartments and condominiums.

Hayes has directed much of his business to working with multifamily clients and Wortman and other electricians see it as the next frontier.

In Minnesota, electricians are plugging into a new niche installing EV chargers is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

On a chilly October morning, Arthur Burton stood in the parking lot of the Chicago Urban League. Since its establishment in 1916, the iconic South Side organization has provided advocacy and opportunity for environmental justice communities facing a two-sided dilemma — disinvestment on one hand, and disproportionate exposure to harmful pollution on the other.

Burton established his company, AMB Renewable Energy, Inc, in 2019 to address both. One of the company’s most recent projects has been to install solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations in the Urban League parking lot. 

In addition to providing energy installation services, Burton also collaborates with Christopher Williams, CEO of Calumet City, Illinois-based Millennium Solar, to provide opportunities for members of disinvested communities to obtain training for green jobs.

“As a minority business owner [I hope I] would have the opportunity to expand this business and continue to grow opportunities for people who never thought opportunities could come their way, and [provide] cutting-edge technology and be successful at it,” Burton said.

Expanding employment opportunities 

The training program operated by AMB Renewable Energy and Millennium Solar offers specialized instruction for recent high school dropouts and other high-risk young people residing in disinvested communities, with a special emphasis on teens and young adults between ages 14 and 24. Trainees are also directed to the program through the Safer Foundation, which works to find opportunities for individuals exiting the correctional system.

“Those are guys that come out that don’t feel like they have another opportunity in life,” Burton said. “We want to give them that opportunity. We want to have them to be able to look at this as something that would be life-changing for them and their families. So, we feel there’s a need for this, especially with the infrastructure bills being passed, and we want to just have our community involved in this whole process.” 

Training includes segments in installing solar, EV charging, and heating and cooling systems. Sessions range from six to eight weeks, providing a total of 30 to 40 hours of training, Burton said.

As part of its workforce development program, AMB Renewable Energy recently employed a training cohort on a 93-kilowatt rooftop solar array in Pontiac, Illinois, partnering with Renewable Energy Evolution, LLC, located in Lake Forest, Illinois. The project was one of the largest awarded to date under the Illinois Solar for All initiative. The installation provided cohort members with valuable hands-on experience, while providing a showcase for the company, Burton said. 

Burton is working to obtain recognition for the program as a Future Energy Jobs Act and Climate and Equitable Jobs Act hub, which would open up much-needed additional funding. AMB Renewable Energy also participated in a ComEd energy efficiency incubator program that enables it to use the utility’s mentors in collaboration with its own workforce development program. 

Burton himself brings a wealth of experience to the sustainability sector. After completing a bachelor of science degree in telecommunications management at DeVry University in Chicago, he worked with AT&T for 18 years as a technical support manager, then went on to receive certifications in solar, building electrification and electric vehicle charging technologies. 

Before launching AMB Renewable Energy, Burton established Cornell Capital Partners LLC in 2011, providing general contracting services for residential and commercial rehab projects on Chicago’s Southeast Side, as well as working on government projects.

However, Burton eventually developed a desire to narrow his scope of projects to reduce overhead. He was eager to make the move into offering a more specialized set of services targeted toward the clean energy sector.

“Being able to offer these types of services in an underserved community, I just thought it was a good opportunity for me to use my expertise to do something [to] give back, and reduce the carbon footprint,” Burton said.

‘How does it affect your community?’

AMB Renewable Energy works in collaboration with a number of organizations, including EVmatch, Blacks in Green, Community Charging Initiative, ISeeChange, Qmerits, Renewable Energy Evolution and Switch Energy, to identify opportunities for clean energy projects. Through these alliances, the company has developed a number of projects in and around Chicago, including EV charging stations, solar panels and other clean energy systems, Burton said.

Burton and AMB Renewable Energy completed its first clean energy project in 2020 — the installation of a Level 2 EV charging station at St. Paul’s Church on Chicago’s North Side. The company worked on the installation with EVmatch, which coordinates funding for nonprofit organizations to allow them to install EV charging stations and similar renewable initiatives. 

AMB Renewable Energy again collaborated with EVmatch, along with Community Charging Initiative, to install two Level 2 charging stations at Plant Chicago in Chicago’s Back of the Yards community on the Southwest Side in 2021.

The solar and EV charging station installation at the Urban League, where Burton also partnered with Renewable Energy Evolution, LLC, will ultimately provide solar-powered electricity for the entire building, along with adding much-needed community access in one of the city’s many EV charging deserts. 

For Burton, projects like these, which implement mitigation efforts against climate change in environmental justice communities, are essential to correct the corrosive impact of decades of disinvestment. Education is also essential to generate buy-in.

“You can always reflect to climate change as a whole. You look at Antarctica, where your glaciers are melting at an enormous rate. You can look at some of the high tide waters that’s coming in because of the carbon footprint. Those are some examples that’s globally wide that someone could see.

“But how does it affect your community? Immediately, you have to look at it and say, ‘Okay, where do I fit in, in this picture, in this green economy? How can I be part of this solution? How can I learn more about it?’ I think the key is to be more informed of what sustainable energy is and how you can benefit from it as a whole as a family and a community,” Burton said.

Chicago entrepreneur uses clean energy to create opportunities in disinvested communities is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Advocates working to electrify transportation in Chicago’s disinvested communities say new state and federal policies will give them a much-needed boost.

BIPOC and other environmental justice communities have traditionally borne the double-sided burden of disinvestment and disparate impact of environmental harm. In Chicago, these communities are largely concentrated on the city’s South and West sides. 

However, organizations like the Community Charging Initiative pilot, funded by a Keeling Curve Prize for Global Warming Mitigation grant, are working to remedy the lack of public charging stations outside of the city’s downtown and affluent White neighborhoods on the North Side and along Lake Michigan.

To that end, Community Charging Initiative works with woman-owned peer-to-peer charging software app developer EVMatch, along with local companies, to install charging stations in BIPOC communities and other charging deserts in and around the city.

The organization installed a community-based electric vehicle charging station with two Level 2 chargers at Plant Chicago in October 2021 using the services of two local Black-owned companies — AMB Renewable Energy, owned by Arthur Burton, and W. Terry Electric LLC, owned by Wendell Terry. 

Plant Chicago is a nonprofit aquaponics grower located in Back of the Yards, a predominantly Latinx community on Chicago’s Southwest side. The charger can be reserved by community residents on their mobile devices through the EVMatch app.

“This is one of the hugest solutions; not the solution, but it’s one [solution],” said Vanessa Perkins, one of the organizers of the Community Charging Initiative. “Electrification is one of the biggest ways we can reduce climate change impacts and emissions.” 

Timely boost

The passage last year of the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act was especially timely in enhancing the mission of the Community Charging Initiative. Legislation like the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act and the newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act provides momentum for initiatives like the Community Charging Initiative. 

Likewise, the recently instituted Illinois EV Rebate Program provides both incentive and financial resources for people who might be inclined to purchase an electric vehicle but who are put off by their high up-front costs. As of July 1, Illinois residents who purchase new or used all-electric vehicles — other than electric motorcycles — from an Illinois licensed dealer are eligible for rebates of up to $4,000. Purchasers of new or used all-electric motorcycles are entitled to a maximum $1,500 rebate. 

At the same time, the organization isn’t waiting for the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act or other legislation to take full force before moving forward, Perkins said. 

“According to science, we have a timeline to tackle climate change and our air quality is bad now, you know? This is taking a step towards that time limit,” Perkins said. “And so, I would just encourage people who are like, ‘Oh, well, we’re going to get reimbursed for EV infrastructure later on’ — I personally feel like we’re out of time.” 

Plant Chicago was eager to take advantage of the opportunity to make a desired change that was not immediately forthcoming.

“For us at Plant Chicago, this was kind of a, I don’t want to say back-burner goal, but it was definitely a long-term goal for us to have a charger at some point in the future,” said Eric Weber, circular economy operations specialist. “And this really just was wonderful that it happened to fall into our lap in a way where we were able to implement it long before we ever saw a need.” 

Urgent need

The need for electrification has become more urgent in recent years with the increased number of vehicles on the road, according to Elizabeth Kócs, Ph.D., an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Engineering.

“From 2015 to 2019, greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation versus the transportation sector switched places,” Kócs said. “Our electricity generation became cleaner, but our transportation sector became dirtier. Not that it became dirtier, but there was just more of it. More transportation — because of more passenger cars, more freight, more shipping, more travel — in just a few years made transportation the most emitting sector in the United States.” 

According to a recent study, urban industrial neighborhoods like Little Village, another predominantly Latinx community on the city’s Southwest side, are subjected to some of the worst air quality in the city. Little Village has been the focus of recent controversy stemming from the botched demolition of the Crawford coal plant and the location of a large Target warehouse, which critics claim would also exacerbate poor air quality in the community.

Hazards from exhaust emissions have been also exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a 2020 Harvard University study, which linked higher rates of death from COVID-19 to areas suffering from high levels of air pollution. Air quality in Back of the Yards does not fare well either, due to its proximity to Little Village, according to Perkins. 

‘Reverberating effect’

Incentives that make electric vehicles more affordable will have a knock-on effect of improved health outcomes for BIPOC and environmental justice communities as gas-powered vehicles are replaced by electric ones, according to Terry Travis, co-founder and CEO of EV Hybrid Noire. The Atlanta-based organization is devoted to promoting electric vehicle ownership among Black and Latinx drivers.

“If you electrify your transportation factor, it has a reverberating effect,” Travis said. “One of the things that is very apparent, and the reason that we prioritize Black and Latinx communities, is the fact that those are the communities that are impacted first to worst. So, if you think about the fact that an African American child in metro Chicago, living in an urban core and living in underserved communities, is 10 times more likely to die from asthma [or] respiratory-related illnesses than their White counterparts — that is why we can’t wait on this. 

“For our communities, for Black and Brown communities, it’s a matter of life. And so, we need to electrify all segments of the transportation sector because that is the largest contributor to carbon emissions.” 

Placing electric vehicles within financial reach of working-class individuals and families will also improve their general quality of life by making it easier to get to work, buy groceries and travel to fulfill other necessities — not to mention entertainment and social life, according to Neda Deylami, an EV owner who founded a group called Chicago Electric Vehicles. 

Deylami observed early on the disparities between the experiences of residents in the working-class neighborhood where she grew up versus those of White students living in more affluent areas of the city.

“My parents were immigrants from Iran. The neighborhood I lived in is predominantly other immigrants and refugees,” Deylami said. “[When later] I would go to high school and college, [I learned] how segregated Chicago actually was. I didn’t know that, for example, there were so many White people in Chicago. I thought everyone was an immigrant like me, because all of my friends had foreign parents. 

“My high school was 3 miles away from my house, and it took me 45 minutes to get there [by bus]. But a lot of my friends that had parents who could drop them off or had cars and were able to drive to school had a much easier time. I think that that also affected how I saw school because I slept less. I had less time to study and I was also working for a time after school. It just framed a lot of my lifestyle.” 

‘Paradigm shift’

Projects like the EV charging station at Plant Chicago are designed to provide economic development and local social benefits through building community-owned EV charging infrastructure, along with reducing automobile emissions with the increased adaptation of electric vehicles. Plant Chicago was eager to get on board with the installation.

“Our vision is that we envision a paradigm shift in production, consumption and waste driven at the local level, generating equity and economic opportunity for all residents,” said Jonathan Pereira, executive director of Plant Chicago. “So, we’re very focused on making sure that, as we transition away from infinite extraction towards renewable energy, removing ourselves from fossil fuel consumption, that there is an equitable access and outcome.” 

Stacey McIlvaine, an electrician and certified solar installer working with W. Terry Electric, is excited about the transition. 

“When you get more variety to choose from, and it becomes more affordable, and once the infrastructure’s there, it makes it even more positive for somebody to jump into an electric car than it does a gas vehicle,” McIlvaine said. “I personally think it’s going to happen and eventually you won’t see any gas vehicles. They’ll be like collectors’ items.” 

Community-led solutions

Sustainability and resilience initiatives are frequently marketed as luxury enclaves or initiated with little or no input from BIPOC voices. Installations like the Plant Chicago EV charging station can tie economic development and local social benefits from building community-owned EV charging infrastructure.

There is also the need to ensure that federal funding is focused on the needs of communities, rather than a top-down approach that may garner favorable press — but offers little or no actual benefit to impacted residents. Organizations like the Community Charging Initiative are committed to a community-based approach, which is the right way to go about the process, according to Kócs, the University of Illinois Chicago professor.

“When we think about sustainability, when we think about economic development, when we think about just transitions, those are all the foundations for creating that,” Kócs said. “And it’s a long process. It’s not something that happens overnight. But it is one where Plant Chicago has shown progress in this space, both from an economic perspective, a community development perspective, and also from an environmental perspective. I think that their approach both internal and external has been one that can be used as an example … [for] other locations taking the model and translating it to a different context as well.”

Climate laws boost Chicago efforts on equitable shift to electric transportation is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.