| New funding awarded to project including Virginia |
This month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced assistance to Virginia communities, fleets and our neighboring states to accelerate the creation of zero-emission vehicle corridors that expand the nation’s electric vehicle (EV) charging and hydrogen (H2) infrastructure.
The Department has awarded $7.4 million to seven projects to develop medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle (EV) charging and hydrogen corridor infrastructure plans that will benefit millions of drivers across 23 states. Virginia joined the east coast cohort led by Calstart.
The DOE-funded projects will focus on infrastructure plans for essential and heavily trafficked domestic freight corridors, including those serving the Eastern Seaboard. The projects, administered by DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), will advance the shared national and regional decarbonization goals by accelerating the deployment of medium- and heavy-duty EV charging and refueling infrastructure to reduce emissions from freight corridors and the depots, ports, and other facilities those corridors service. Selected projects support DOE’s Justice40 priorities by demonstrating the impacts and benefits of these freight corridors plans on underserved communities.
“A clean transportation sector requires vast investments across the entire industry, including to decarbonize the trucks that move our goods and building more charging ports to get those trucks from coast to coast,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “President Biden’s historic clean energy laws are making it possible for us to get more EVs on the road by expanding charging infrastructure into underserved communities, while reducing range and cost anxiety among drivers who want to go electric.”
“Virginia Clean Cities at James Madison University is proud of the federal partnership in bringing forward the Virginia infrastructure planning effort.” Said Alleyn Harned, Director of Virginia Clean Cities “Clean transportation fuels like electricity, hydrogen, and biofuels can present lower cost for large vehicles and wide environmental benefit, and hydrogen planning allows for fuel cell electric or traditional combustion transportation”
The project is titled: East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor. This project will launch an intensive strategic planning effort to spur the deployment of commercial medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure through the development of an East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor along the I-95 freight corridor from Georgia to New Jersey. The Virginia portion will also identify further partnership to emphasize I-81.
Please Contact Alleyn Harned aharned@vacleancities.org if you would like to be involved in this Virginia effort for Medium and Heavy Duty Zero Emission Vehicles in electric or hydrogen in Virginia.
U.S. Department of Energy Announcement: LINK
