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| News and Events:
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| TDEC Announces Funding Recipients for Medium and Large Truck Grant Programs
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) announced that 26 entities will receive $9,724,683.74 in total grant funding to replace class 4-7 local freight trucks (medium trucks) and class 8 local freight trucks (large trucks) across the state. The total includes $3,772,646.05 for medium truck projects and $5,952,037.69 for large truck projects (a full list of grantees is available here).
The pair of competitive grant programs comprise the state’s third solicitation for projects under the Volkswagen Diesel Settlement Environmental Mitigation Trust (VW Settlement EMT). The purpose of the EMT is to execute environmental mitigation projects that reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx).
For the Medium Truck Grant Program, selected awardees will replace a total of 35 engine model year 1992-2009 diesel trucks with 10 new diesel, two all-electric, 14 hybrid, eight propane, and one compressed natural gas trucks. These selected medium truck replacement projects are expected to reduce 22,561.47 pounds, or 11.28 tons, of NOx emissions over the lifetime of the new vehicles, with a vehicle cost-effectiveness rating of $166.44 per pound of NOx reduced.
For the Large Truck Grant Program, selected awardees will replace a total of 51 engine model year 1992-2009 diesel trucks with 42 new diesel, one all-electric, one hybrid, and seven compressed natural gas trucks. These selected large truck replacement projects are expected to reduce 49,770.78 pounds, or 24.89 tons, of NOx emissions over the lifetime of the new vehicles, with a vehicle cost-effectiveness rating of $119.46 per pound of NOx reduced.
TDEC is the lead agency for administering the state’s VW Settlement EMT allocation. Announcements on future funding programs under the EMT will be shared by the department.
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| TVA Releases FY20 Sustainability Report
TVA has released its FY20 Sustainability Report, which provides a comprehensive overview of the utility’s performance in providing reliable, clean energy to create a healthy environment and prosperous economy. In addition to grid decarbonization, technological innovation, and resiliency, the report discusses TVA’s transportation electrification goals, highlighting the joint TVA-Drive Electric Tennessee goal to drive electric vehicle (EV) adoption to 200,000 EVs on Tennessee roads by 2028 (as of March 2021, approximately 12,000 EVs were registered in Tennessee).
The report notes that transportation is a leading source of carbon emissions and the country’s largest opportunity for electrification, as well as how TVA plans to leverage its investments and partnerships with State government and local power companies to reduce and remove barriers to EV adoption. Reaching this transportation electrification goal is estimated to result in $120 million reinvested in the local economy annually from refueling, $200 million in consumer fuel savings per year, and an annual avoidance of nearly one million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Click here to access the full report.
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| Tennessee Receives New FHWA Alternative Fuel Corridor Designations
Under the FAST Act, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has designated national Alternative Fuel Corridors (AFC) for electricity, hydrogen, propane, and natural gas with the purpose of improving passenger and commercial alternative fuel vehicle mobility across the United States. To designate the corridors, FHWA solicits nominations from State and local officials, who work with industry stakeholders to incorporate existing fueling infrastructure and plans for future infrastructure into their AFC nominations. Following the most recent round of AFC nominations, FHWA has granted “Corridor Pending” or “Corridor Ready” designations for the following Tennessee routes for CNG, propane, and/or electricity refueling (designated across multiple rounds of AFC nominations): I-40, I-24, I-75, I-65, I-81, I-26, and portions of US-64 and US-51. As a result of this most recent round of nominations, Tennessee’s AFC system has expanded to include all interstates that run through the state’s highway network as well as two major non-interstate highways. To view maps of the FHWA AFC system, click here.
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| New Fast Charging Infrastructure in Tennessee
A new EV fast charging station has come online in Kodak to supply electricity to travelers along the I-40 corridor east of Knoxville. The new, publicly-accessible Electrify America station, which is located at a Harley-Davidson dealership, follows the 2019 announcement that the two organizations would partner to provide a complimentary 500 kWh of charging to owners of Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire electric motorcycles at Electrify America stations nationwide.
Additionally, four new Tesla Superchargers are now live in Knoxville, Nashville, Cookeville, and Pigeon Forge, each of which will provide quick charging to Tesla EV owners in some of the most well-traveled areas around the state. This development is part of Tesla’s ongoing expansion in Tennessee, along with the recent announcement that a new Tesla service center will be coming soon to Knoxville.
Expansion of charging infrastructure is one of the most important goals of the region’s transportation electrification advocacy groups, including Drive Electric Tennessee. U.S. DOE recently shared that over half of all states now provide access to over 1,000 EV charging stations, including Tennessee, which has over 1,500 charging stations available statewide.
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| UPCOMING EVENTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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| Webinar: State of Sustainable Fleets
The State of Sustainable Fleets report gathers real-world data directly from early-adopter fleets across the U.S. to provide sector-specific insights into the adoption of CNG, propane, electric, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles against a baseline of conventional diesel and gas fleet options. The analysis includes public, private, and for-hire fleets, including school, municipal/shuttle, urban delivery, refuse, utility, transit, short-haul, and long-haul sectors. Click here to register for a webinar on the report, which will take place May 26 at 11:30 AM Eastern.
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| CMAQ Competitive Funding 2021
The federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program provides dedicated federal funding to state Departments of Transportation for projects that improve air quality and reduce congestion. This program improves air quality by funding transportation projects and programs that reduce emissions from on-road mobile sources and certain non-road mobile sources (such as construction equipment and marine or rail projects) in designated air quality nonattainment and maintenance areas.
To be eligible, projects must be transportation-related, located in or benefit a non-attainment or maintenance area, and have an emissions reductions benefit. Eligible project types include, but are not limited to, alternative fuels infrastructure and technologies, transit service, transportation demand management, public outreach, cleaner diesel technologies, carpooling and vanpooling, and intelligent transportation systems. Selected projects are to be 80% or 100% federally funded, depending on the project type. Required letters of intent are due June 4. Click here to apply.
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| TAEBC Advanced Energy Virtual Business Roundtable – Middle Tennessee
The Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC) has been hosting a series of regional business roundtables throughout 2021 to guide communication and outreach efforts tied to advanced energy; connect businesses with higher education and technical campuses to discuss evolving needs; gather information regarding workforce challenges; and collect feedback on existing and desired energy incentives. Each of these webinars is designed to cultivate an advanced energy economy that attracts and retains investment from innovative businesses.
For the Middle Tennessee roundtable, scheduled for June 9 at 10:00 AM Central, TAEBC has gathered speakers to discuss creation of a statewide electric vehicle charging network as well as the actions TAEBC stakeholders can take to make Tennessee the number one state in the country for the electric vehicle supply chain. TDEC Commissioner David Salyers will present on the department’s electric vehicle activities to date and will be joined by speakers from TVA, LaunchTN, the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association, the Tennessee Board of Regents, and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. Click here to register.
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| Clean Fuels Summit: Virtual Conference 2021
Louisiana Clean Fuels and the Southeast Louisiana Clean Fuel Partnership will host this year’s Clean Fuels Summit in a virtual format from June 15-16. This event will bring together public and private fleet managers, business owners, municipal planning organizations, and policymakers to discuss some of the most important topics in clean transportation such as sustainable fleet management, alternative fuels’ role in emergency preparedness, funding opportunities, and current market and technological trends. Those interested in presenting at this year’s Summit should contact ann@louisianacleanfuels.org.
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BlastPoint’s new report, the 2021 EV Outlook, discusses the progress and setbacks in EV adoption and infrastructure across 2020 and reveals the latest on the state of transportation electrification worldwide. The data collected addresses topics such as what kinds of fleet vehicles are available on the market, which companies and organizations lead in electric fleets, how many chargers are installed/where charging infrastructure is located across the U.S., and which industries show the highest likelihood of installing EV chargers on their properties. Click here to access the full report.
Another resource, the Road to Clean Air, is a national report by the American Lung Association highlighting the potential for major public health benefits of widespread transportation electrification. The report illustrates that transitioning to zero-emission transportation solutions, along with increasing levels of renewable energy by mid-century, will save thousands of lives, avoid tens of thousands of asthma attacks, mitigate hundreds of thousands of other health impacts, and avoid tens of billions of dollars in health costs as a result of significant pollution reductions. In addition, moving to eliminate combustion from the transportation sector will yield significant reductions in greenhouse gases that drive wide-ranging impacts on air quality and public health. Click here to access the full report. Click here to view a regional fact sheet from the report, which estimates that replacing conventional combustion vehicles with EVs could yield up to $72 billion in avoided health costs and $113 billion in avoided climate change impacts for the Southeast by 2050.
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