Pasco County Schools and its partners opened the U.S. State of Florida’s first school district owned and operated compressed natural gas (CNG) fast-fill station to fuel the 65 CNG buses the district will have by the end of the 17-18 school year.
In addition to the filling station, the district also is opening a new bus compound at the site, 13101 Interlaken Road in Odessa. Student enrolment projections add an average of 1,000 students per year over the next 10 years district-wide, the majority of which will be in the State Road 54 corridor. Just like the filling station, the garage is state-of-the-art and specially designed to service the CNG buses. It is scheduled to be fully operational by July and will accommodate up to 90 buses.
According to an article published by Elevate, Inc., in November 2016, “Eventually the Pasco County School System will transition its entire bus fleet over the next four/five years where all 125 buses will run solely on CNG.”
“We are proud of how far we have come in just a few short years,” said School Board Chairman Altman. “We couldn’t have done it without great partnerships and the talented, dedicated staff of our Construction Services, Transportation Services, and Planning departments,” he added.
The CNG station, equipped with US-made compression equipment, is capable of dispensing more than 10,500 gasoline gallons equivalent/day and can refuel a bus in approximately three minutes.
Each CNG bus will reduce C02 emissions by nearly 20,000 pounds annually. Compared to the current clean diesel buses, these buses produce 13 percent less greenhouse gas, 95 percent less nitrogen oxide, and 80 percent less hydrocarbon.
(Source: Pasco County Schools)
