Full Title: Strategic Planning to Enable ESCOs to Accelerate NGV Fleet Deployment: A Guide for Businesses and Policymakers
Author(s): Nick Nigro, Dan Welch, and Ji Eun Park
Publisher(s): Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)
Publication Date: July 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Increasing the use of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) could significantly reduce gasoline and diesel use in the transportation sector. The displacement of petroleum by natural gas can improve local air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance domestic energy security.
Public and private fleets are among the most promising stakeholders to advance NGV deployment because they may be able to more readily overcome the barriers to NGV deployment than individual vehicle owners. Although fleet managers have explored the potential of natural gas in the past decade, high upfront vehicle costs and the lack of available fueling infrastructure have prevented the widespread adoption of NGVs. Many of these challenges can be overcome through the development and implementation of innovative financial agreements and with expert project facilitation by knowledgeable third parties.
This guide addresses questions that private investors and state and local agencies may have about key considerations and strategies for deploying NGVs in public and private fleets. The guide analyzes a range of scenarios for tractortrailer truck, school bus, and light-duty vehicle fleets. Each scenario estimates the potential for NGVs to achieve net cost savings compared to conventional vehicles. Although switching to natural gas can lower costs, many fleet managers have not converted their fleets to NGVs. The business model that energy service companies (ESCOs) apply to energy efficiency projects may help fleet managers transition to NGV projects and realize these potential cost savings.