Anchorage reveals two new electric garbage trucks
One of the Municipality of Anchorage Solid Waste Services’s brand new electric garbage trucks lifts a bin at the public launch.
April 16, 2024
The Municipality of Anchorage’s Solid Waste Services unveiled their two new Peterbuilt 520 fully electric garbage trucks at a public launch on March 20 at their facilities.
These new heavy-duty vehicles join an electric medium duty Peterbuilt 220 box truck that SWS has been operating since the summer of 2021.
ACEP is the data analyst for this project by SWS, implementing a pilot demonstration of two electric refuse trucks and an electric box truck.
The data so far shows that while the box truck consumes more energy as the weather gets colder, it has the potential to save over $1,500 in fueling and two tons of carbon emissions per year, compared to a similar fossil-fueled vehicle driven 5,200 miles in Anchorage per year.
ACEP Research Engineer Michelle Wilber attended the launch and reported that all in attendance were excited about the pilot study.
“The frequent starts and stops of a garbage collection route allow for very efficient recharging of the battery through regenerative braking, so the trucks have large potential benefits for the municipality,” she said.
ACEP will collect data from the operation of the new garbage trucks and compare their performance to the municipalities’ existing fleet of diesel garbage trucks.
The SWS project, “Pilot Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicle Deployment for Municipal Solid Waste Collection,” is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.