There is no doubt that electric vehicle technology is imperfect. (...and that it is still an emerging technology that is improving). Compared to ICE vehicles, they don't have the range needed for longer drives. They largely use electricity made from burning coal. Et cetera.
But there continue to be some interesting developments. Electric school buses sit all night and almost all day. When used, they are used for a fairly brief time and not-so-many miles. Because of this, electric school buses make some sense.
At least one electric utility is using them in another way. The utility stores energy in those bus batteries which can be used during peak-demand periods. One of the most expensive problems for utilities is the lumpy nature of demand for electricity. Bus batteries are large and there are a fair number of school buses. They store a substantial amount of electricity.
But it doesn't there. Any consumer-owned renewable energy system that uses batteries can be used by utilities as 'backup' energy sources. They can be 'topped up' by utilities during low-demand period, then they can provide power during peak demand periods. Particularly for short-duration demand periods where demand changes by the minute.
School buses, and other private systems that store energy in batteries, could potentially be so useful to utilities that the utility might pay to set them up. And some generation facilities, particularly gas-powered plants used to supply peak demands, and which are expensive to operate sporadically as they are, might not be needed.
So apparently, having EV batteries sitting around everywhere is turning out to be a benefit beyond just saving money for their owners by eliminating gasoline purchases. Also, apparently, kids make far less noise when riding electric buses. They are quieter.
