California's economy supports thousands of commercial and public fleets statewide. The state-owned fleet alone includes more than 39,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment. Outside the public sector, various California businesses and organizations own and operate major private fleets. Several California fleets are early adopters of compressed natural gas and other alternative fuels. However, the vast majority of existing fleet vehicles are still fueled by conventional fossil diesel or gasoline, leaving significant potential for converting existing fleets to alternative fuels and alternative vehicle technologies. The project sought to develop, launch, and operate the NORCAL Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicle Technology Center to help support greater fleet transition to alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies.
In all, the project was highly successful in developing and operating the center, which completed full-fleet analyses for 23 public and private fleets statewide, representing 41,749 pieces of equipment and vehicles analyzed. When completed, the conversion efforts emanating from this work will support average emissions reductions of about 62 percent for fully participating fleets. Efforts completed to date have supported a 37 percent average reduction in emissions for fleets that have begun implementing their fleet transformation plans. Through target outreach, event-based outreach, trainings, and online education, the project team completed education and outreach to 980 individuals while maintaining a Web presence that includes immediately useful research and educational material and tools. In spite of a reduced scope of work compared to the original proposal, a yearlong contracting-related delay during implementation, the carbonBLU team has completed a highly successful project that is set to continue operations independently for the near future. The project team also expanded its reach well beyond its initial intended target of Northern California, having reached into Southern California to support fleet analysis, grant program development, and collaboration with other relevant industry organizations.
