Search Projects

The Mid-America Collaborative for Alternative Fuels Implementation project will focus on diversifying transportation fuel options in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri. These efforts include: developing an alternative fuel policy model; recommending an AFV procurement policy and best practices toolbox; safety and operations training for first responders, fleet managers, code officials, fire marshals, and key decision makers; vocational training at local colleges and technical schools; and establishing a Green Fleet Technical Assistance and Certification program.

This project supports electric vehicle (EV) purchases, charging station installations, and outreach efforts to notify communities of these resources. The funds will help small businesses and rural cities accelerate their transition to EVs in Missouri and Kansas. The project includes eight partner businesses and municipalities operating within Kansas and Missouri environmental justice areas, opportunity zones, and other underserved areas. The project includes deployment as well as an innovative 15% cost share "overmatch" from its eight core funding recipients, which is leveraged to implement a small grants program for underserved communities. These grant recipients will be able to define project features guiding local benefit like installing public EV charging stations in parking lots and curbsides near multifamily residential complexes and retail businesses. The small grants program will place EV charging stations within underserved or rural areas that feel the effects of environmental justice issues. Diesel emissions from heavy-duty vehicles and off-road machinery contribute to early deaths, asthma rates, and family illness, keeping people away from jobs and school. Those are just some of the health and social impacts from diesel fumes that affect the community members the Metropolitan Energy Center serves. The project launched in March 2022. To learn more about the project or available funding, contact Miriam Bouallegue.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2022 Annual Report or Annual Merit Review presentation.

The Safe Alternative Fuel Deployments in Mid-America: a Training Initiative for Combined AFV and State Fire and Rescue Training (SAF-D) project will collaborate with the State Fire & Rescue Training Institutes in Missouri and Kansas to adapt existing alternative fuel safety curriculum to their existing training structures. The project will help incorporate low-cost training on alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure into state training systems, allowing far more first responders to be trained on these technologies than would be otherwise. In addition, the project will develop an online training resource for first responders that also leverages and promotes existing resources.

Metropolitan Energy Center, along with19 sub-recipients, received funding support for projects to build alternative fuel stations, purchase alternative fuel vehicles, and convert conventionally-fueled vehicles to an alternative fuel. The project area included metropolitan areas in three states: Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. The project deployed 376 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles and included 29 fueling station installations. The stations will encourage fleets in the area to further invest in alternative fuel vehicles and will create workable compressed natural gas travel corridors between and within the target metros. Another objective of the project was to use success stories to educate the public about, and increase acceptance of, alternative fuels.

Located in Missouri, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield is the site of the first major Civil War battle fought west of the Mississippi River, allowing visitors to experience one of the best-preserved battlefields in the nation. Working with the Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalition in 2015, the park added a propane pick-up truck, four propane lawn mowers, and propane refueling infrastructure to its fleet. The park also collaborated with the coalition to demonstrate how these technologies can help preserve the historic landscape. This project is estimated to help the park reduce its annual emissions by more than 4 million tons of CO₂ and displace the use of nearly 660 gasoline-gallon equivalents of petroleum per year.

The Aggregated Alternative Technology Alliance (AATA), also known as Fleets for the Future (F4F), worked to eliminate barriers to alternative fuel vehicle and infrastructure adoption in public and private fleets by consolidating bulk equipment orders and streamlining the procurement process. The project was led by the National Association of Regional Councils who worked with multiple project partners and stakeholders in 11 states to develop fuel neutral best practices, cooperative procurement agreement templates, and design a web-based toolkit to educate fleets and procurement officers. The partners used outreach and education to share information about these resources to motivate fleet managers and consumers to purchase alternative fuel vehicles, equipment, and infrastructure.

As of 2018, the F4F team wrote 5 best practices guides, a multi-step strategic procurement process guide, and created a national procurement plan for the public sector. All of these publications are available on the project’s website. The project also resulted in 5 regional pilot procurement initiatives in Kansas City, Missouri; Boston, Massachusetts; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; and Washington, D.C. Each regional pilot was associated with training opportunities for regional councils and fleets to address the unique barriers and procurement needs. Over 33,000 people were reached through these in-person events and over 3,000 people were reached through webinar participation.

The Metropolitan Energy Center (MEC) aims to support the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles and establish new compressed natural gas, propane, and electric alternative fueling infrastructure on major travel corridors in Kansas and Missouri. The new alternative fueling infrastructure will fill crucial gaps along major shipping corridors and help overcome a significant barrier to alternative fuel vehicle adoption.

As of 2019, MEC and its project partners have developed one propane station and one 12-stall electric charging station, conducted four workshops, converted 5 gasoline trucks to CNG, and replaced eighteen diesel trucks and four diesel shuttles with natural gas vehicles. The workshops serve to connect stakeholder with resources, build community support for projects, and identify potential partners for future alternative fuel vehicle adoption. The project will also generate best practices documents, case studies, and deployment guides to leverage community-based business and community relationships to accelerate adoption and awareness of alternative fuels.

St. Louis, Missouri, is a diverse Midwestern city that has encountered a half-century of economic downturn, with its population diminishing from 850,000 to 300,000 since 1950. Additionally, with no local or state incentives for electric vehicles (EVs), access to both EVs and charging infrastructure has been limited. The overall goal of the St. Louis Vehicle Electrification Rides for Seniors (SiLVERS) project is to increase EV adoption and reduce transportation-related operating expenses for social service agencies in low-income communities. The project seeks to increase EV adoption by validating that EV fleets can save social service agencies money on transportation operation costs while improving service delivery, providing access to electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) for employees and community members, and developing tools and best practices for use by community-based organizations and social service agencies nationwide, allowing them to replicate this approach.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2021 Annual Report or the 2022 Annual Merit Review presentation and the 2023 Annual Merit Review presentation.

The objectives of this project are to demonstrate the feasibility of electrification for freight yard and terminal fleets through pilot projects with three fleets and to generate outreach documents that can be used regionally and nationally to promote electrification in other terminal fleets. Through observation, interviews, and data capture, Metropolitan Energy Center (MEC) validates the speed with which fleets earn back the capital costs of replacing diesel terminal tractors with electric models, generates case studies that can be used throughout industrial markets in Clean Cities territories, and puts four Orange EV T-Series all-electric terminal trucks into permanent service within the regional territory. As part of this project, MEC is creating a deployment guide based on the real-world data and experiences of pilot fleets in Chicago and Kansas City so fleet operators across the country can make the move to clean, efficient freight handling.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2020 Annual Report or Annual Merit Review presentation.

The goal of DRIVE Electric USA (DEUSA) is to greatly accelerate statewide, state-led "Drive Electric" initiatives in multiple states by educating consumers, utilities, utility regulators, and government officials; engaging auto dealers and fleet leaders; conducting EV infrastructure planning; and developing local EV chapters. All of this is occurring under the banner of branded, statewide EV initiatives, guided by each state's stakeholders. DEUSA is creating a Replication Playbook based on outputs and lessons learned that incorporates results from the project work and highlights specific successes from all the participating states. The project conducts EV infrastructure planning sessions for corridors and urban and rural areas, including a focus on disadvantaged and limited-income communities, builds relationships with dozens of utilities and utility regulators, and creates incentives and investment opportunities.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2021 Annual Report or the 2022 Annual Merit Review presentation and the 2023 Annual Merit Review presentation.