Clean Energy Fuels Corp. has announced that it will construct new compressed natural gas (CNG) stations for Arlington Transit (ART) in Arlington County, Va.; Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) in Long Island, N.Y.; and the North Kansas City, Mo., School District, which Clean Energy says is set to become the largest school district in the U.S. to transition its school bus fleet to CNG. Furthermore, the company has announced additional agreements with trucking, refuse and other customers.
‘Despite lower oil prices, Clean Energy continues to add fueling partnerships across all our transportation markets,’ states Andrew J. Littlefair, president and CEO of Clean Energy. ‘No matter if they are with a school district, municipality or trucking company, managers of large fleets are looking for a cleaner fuel that reliably costs less and does not have volatile price swings. Natural gas continues to meet their needs.’
NICE has awarded Clean Energy the contract to design, build and operate and maintain a new CNG station that will, upon completion, replace its existing Mitchel Field station, as well as operate and maintain the existing CNG stations. The five-year contract, valued at just over $13 million, will extend the partnership between NICE and Clean Energy and will support a fleet of over 200 CNG buses. Clean Energy says it currently supports another 100 CNG buses at an additional station and provides a total of 4.6 million GGEs of CNG annually for the NICE bus fleet. Completion of the new station is expected in summer 2017.
Clean Energy has been contracted by W.M. Schlosser Co. to build a fast-fill CNG station at a new bus depot being constructed for ART, which will initially deploy 25 new CNG transit buses that are expected to consume 225,000 DGEs of CNG a year. ART has plans to grow the fleet to 75 CNG buses.
The North Kansas City School District will replace 124 school buses with new CNG models, with an option to purchase an additional 30 over the next 10 years. Clean Energy will construct a new station that includes fast-fill and time-fill fueling options using two Clean Energy Compression (CEC) compressors, as well as modify a maintenance facility to facilitate CNG buses. The 15-year contract will be funded through financing secured by the district and is a joint partnership between the school district, Clean Energy and Midwest Bus Sales, based in Bonner Springs, Kans., which will supply the district's new CNG school buses. This transition for the 20,000-student school district will begin for the 2016 school year, when the Clean Energy station is scheduled to be operational.
Also in the transit industry, Clean Energy says the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada ordered an additional 80 buses that will fuel at a Clean Energy-operated and -maintained station, which is expected to be an incremental 700,000 DGEs of CNG annually.
In the trucking industry, Clean Energy says it locked in the following deals:
– Raven Transport has ordered an additional 20 liquefied natural gas (LNG) trucks to add to its fleet of over 180 LNG trucks fueling with Clean Energy. The new trucks will fuel at Clean Energy stations in the southeast U.S. and are expected to consume 420,000 DGEs of LNG annually.
– Clean Energy expanded its fueling partnership with Dart Trucking as it redeploys 25 CNG trucks to new Clean Energy stations in Ohio and Missouri. Clean Energy says it will open five additional stations for the fleet, which is expected to consume 450,000 DGEs a year.
– Bimbo Bakeries, currently fueling a fleet of CNG trucks at a Clean Energy station in Sacramento, Calif., will deploy nine additional CNG trucks in Pennsylvania that are expected to consume over 40,000 DGEs a year.
– Manhattan Beer Distributors signed a new agreement to fuel 20 CNG trucks at multiple Clean Energy stations in New York, consuming an expected 160,000 DGEs annually.
– Off Spec Solutions will begin fueling 25 LNG trucks at several Clean Energy stations in the southwest U.S. and are expected to consume 250,000 DGEs a year.
– Schmidt Liquid Transport will initially deploy 10 CNG trucks and fuel at the recently opened Clean Energy station in North Platte, Neb. These trucks are expected to consume 180,000 DGEs a year, and Schmidt has plans to increase its CNG fleet.
– Central Freight and Clean Energy expanded their fueling partnership with an additional 21 trucks fueling at Clean Energy's Love Field station in Dallas and are forecasted to consume 149,000 DGEs of CNG annually.
– Modern Transportation signed a new fuel agreement that will expand an existing partnership with over 20 CNG and LNG trucks that are being deployed in Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Colorado. The new trucks are expected to consume in excess of 400,000 DGEs of fuel a year.
In the refuse industry, Clean Energy announced the following agreements:Â
– Republic Services continues to expand its partnership with Clean Energy with a recent operations and maintenance agreement for a station that fuels 75 refuse trucks in Huntington Beach, Calif., which are expected to consume 600,000 DGEs of CNG a year.
– Garden City Sanitation in Santa Clara, Calif., signed an operations and maintenance agreement that will serve 45 refuse trucks that consume 350,000 DGEs a year.
– The City of Spokane, Wash., will begin fueling 20 solid waste trucks at a recently opened CNG station that was designed and equipped by Clean Energy. The city plans to add approximately 10 trucks per year, with as many as 100 eventually being fueled at the station. Each truck is expected to consume 11,500 DGEs annually.
Furthermore, Clean Energy says California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co. signed a bulk fuel sales contract to receive over 500,000 gallons of LNG from Clean Energy's Boron plant in July and another 1,000,000 gallons of LNG in August for a pipeline integrity testing program.
