Austin Buses Are Getting a Solar-Powered Upgrade

Twelve acres of solar panels are going to keep Cap Metro buses rolling (photo by John Anderson)

The Cap Metro push toward bus electrification is taking another step toward making an already green form of transportation even greener. Austin-based Holt Renewables will begin building solar canopies across a 12-acre North Austin site in October that will be used for hands-free overhead bus charging.

The $34 million project will be a first of its kind, not necessarily because of the technology, but due to the scale, said Aaron Arriaga, a commercial project developer with Holt. The facility will have 74 chargers that feed into 222 pantographs – the arms of the apparatus that will automatically drop onto and begin charging the buses. "It's a smart charging system, so [the pantographs will] come up once the bus is fully charged and then the buses can just go from there," Arriaga said.

The project, slated to be complete in January 2025, also requires collaboration with Austin Energy, as different factors affect whether the solar panels will give the buses enough juice for a full charge. For example, if one bus is looking to recharge in the middle of the day it should be able to entirely use solar energy, but if all 74 chargers are in use the buses might need to tap into the AE supply. The exact percentage of energy the solar canopies will provide, versus other sources, has not been determined, Arriaga said.

Cap Metro already has 12 electric buses in operation and plans to boost that number to close to 200, according to its website. Finding charging solutions will be key for the public transit agency's shift to an electric fleet. The question already reared its head when Cap Metro cited charging logistics as a reason for delays in starting two new MetroRapid routes; those are now expected in 2025.