Earlier this week we looked at the work we’ve done as part of the eRCV project, to repower bin lorries. But what could this mean for our cities? Well the UK currently has between 12-14,000 refuse collection vehicles (RCVs), making daily rounds in the neighbourhoods they serve to collect the rubbish left outside the 23 million homes we live in. And apart from a handful of trial projects like eRCV, all these vehicles are running on diesel, contributing to pollution and CO2 emissions. But we think in the next phase of their evolution they could be part of a holistic solution against climate change.

Bin lorries have gone through only a few iterations in their long history. From the middle ages until the late-19th century people collected rubbish on horse-drawn carts, then came the first motorised lorry, a steam-powered ‘tip-car’ in London in 1896. The petrol engine quickly became a more efficient alternative, with trucks following the Dempster-Dumpster design, growing in size to reach today’s version of the 26-tonne lorries all kids want to climb on. And the next transformation is already here, in the form of battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell powertrains. All quieter, cleaner and cheaper alternatives.

But this transformation could go even further!

A big challenge in transforming our energy system to fully renewable is the inability of energy sources like wind or solar to operate on demand. Whilst on average over a day or a week we can generate a lot of clean electricity, it doesn’t always happen exactly when we need it. Today we balance this supply/demand gap with flexible generators like natural gas turbines. If we want to be zero-carbon however, we’ll need to use batteries.

Now electric refuse collection vehicles have very large batteries. Each vehicle operates on 300kWh, using approx. half of this during their operational day. This means that once the vehicles’ shifts are finished around 3-5pm and they park at their depot, there is a huge storage capacity available for other use. This capacity could total 2.5GWh nationwide (assuming 150kWh available from all 14,000 vehicles) and could be released back to the grid through vehicle-to-grid charging points. Considering a constant release during the peak electricity demand times of 5-10pm, this could add 0.5GWh to the national supply. 0.5GWh is 10% of the ~5GWh jump the network experiences at peak times as people get home, start cooking/washing/turn on their TVs.

Not only would this supply be quite significant, it is critically located at the right places. Bin lorries operate where people live, hence they’d provide supply without the requirement of transporting it huge distances. The simple ability to draw on this reliable supply could help the grid to be balanced locally.

Why would fleets do this?

Apart from the positive environmental aspects, this system could generate money for fleets. If we assume a 10p average difference between peak energy costs - when the fleet could be selling electricity to the grid - and the off-peak costs at night and weekends - when it would be charging - for a vehicle fleet of 50 electric RCVs, it could be making fleet managers £750 per day (or nearly £200,000 a year). And this would still have all vehicles charged up by the morning. Meanwhile today running the same routes on a diesel fleet would cost £1,800 per day, just on fuel costs.

At DG Cities we work with our clients to identify such innovative and holistic solutions to help them electrify their fleets. For us, the path towards a zero-carbon future is about more than just eliminating fossil fuels, it encompasses smart thinking to better use available assets, work across silos and have a real impact at multiple levels.

If you like the idea above or have any questions or comments, drop us a line at [email protected]; we are keen to work with you.