Many clean energy technologies are cheaper to operate in the long term, but the initial upfront cost required to deploy them makes them unattainable for many. This is true for distributed energy resources installed at a residence, like solar panels or energy efficiency upgrades, and also true for electric vehicles, especially for cities or agencies which operate large fleets.
Many cities have plans to transition their public transportation to electric vehicles, but are relying on grants to help overcome this upfront cost barrier. Our partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in North Carolina has allowed us to model the application of on-bill tariffs to electric buses, allowing cities to procure more electric buses with the same amount of funding.
EDF has provided leadership to build solutions for North Carolina to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals, and we support their efforts to include tariffed on-bill financing as part of the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Plan under NC Executive Order 80.
Click here to read the full blog post on North Carolina’s ZEV Plan from EDF.