PGH Lab 7.0 — Farm to Flame
A City of Pittsburgh resilience story with the Department of City Planning
Farm to Flame Energy partnered with the Department of City Planning's division of Sustainability and Resilience in order to test and showcase alternative methods for charging City of Pittsburgh’s electric vehicle (EV) fleet. In this article we will cover from the perspective of a first person source the ups, the downs, and the discoveries made along the way.
Check out this accompanying one minute project overview showcasing our City and Company team!
One Small Step…
The original goal of the pilot was to test Farm to Flame’s shipping container sized proprietary biofuel generators using wood waste collected from the City’s Forestry division. The partnership was also to provide additional charging options for residents using electric vehicles in addition to charging the cities own EV fleet. As the project progressed however challenges emerged that forced the project to diverge from its original plans.
At the start, the teams largest challenge was identifying a location that would fit a shipping container sized generator, and not impact resident or city facility operations. The team worked to review recreation facilities across the city so that any pilot instillation would be able to include a public facing education component. In addition to testing the generator it was also important to the team that users of the charger or passing residents at the facility could see, interact with, and understand where this clean energy was coming from. After exploring multiple recreation centers across the city for installation however, no recreation facility had the capacity for instillation without some renovations that fell outside of project scope. The team and project then pivoted to looking into a partnership with the City of Pittsburgh Zoo. This was in effort to maintain relevance to public charging and education while also keeping it in an area of high traffic.
The Zoo partnership ultimately provided mixed results as the team was unable to find a location for a pilot installation that would meet project needs. Although the team was unable to secure a partnership with the Zoo, the City staff was able to facilitate a connection for Farm to Flame that would last beyond the PGH Lab cohort. At the conclusion of the 7.0 cohort, Farm to Flame was still in discussions with the Zoo looking into ways they could implement their generator on site in order to make use of the Zoo’s own wood waste.
One giant leap…
One of the benefits of the PGH Lab program is its flexibility. Although a physical installation did not bear fruit for the team, they still had a few ways of providing value to the City and its residents.
Through this pilot the City discovered that a traditional approach to the installation of EV infrastructure would not be optimal, given the fluidity of the City’s standard work and facilities. After discussion with partners from the departments of City Planning Sustainability and Resilience, Public Works and even the Parks Department, we were able to uncover that a more modular approach to EV charging infrastructure would be the greatest value add. Originally it was thought that a more traditional and permanent installation would work best for any type of EV charging. The idea being one large upfront cost and one installation would be the best use of City time and tax payer dollars. However, through this pilot we were able to demonstrate to City leadership the benefits, flexibility, and long term savings that a modular approach could afford. In the event a facility would need to move or if the fleet was expanded beyond a location’s capacity, the City could save hundreds of thousands of dollars in both removal and reinstallation costs for EV charging infrastructure by just moving the all in one module.
In addition to an increased understanding of what type of EV infrastructure would add the greatest benefit, this pilot also helped City leadership understand new ways to support the local circular economy of Pittsburgh.
A circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves reusing, repairing, and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible considering the full life cycle of the material and its outputs.
The City of Pittsburgh’s Forestry Division is responsible for managing our city generated wood waste including working with our current third party vendors to remove excess waste. By collaborating with Forestry we could use some of this extra waste as fuel for our pilot with the Farm to Flame generator. Through exploration of what this initiative would require, we were able to show that Farm to Flame provided a local alternative for managing a portion of our existing City wood waste.
As it stands, the City pays ~$130k to remove excess wood waste not used in local mulching or compost. By partnering with Farm to Flame the city would have the potential to save tax payer dollars while investing in a local startup. This circular economy approach would not only invest in our region, but also help us manage our waste more sustainably and closer to home.
For all yinzer kind..
All in all, although this project did not accomplish its originally intended goal of charging the City ‘s EV fleet, it did provide several learnings and connections for all parties involved. The City now has a better understanding of EV charging needs, discovered additional ways of reducing wood waste in a more sustainable manner, and identified potential ways to help save the taxpayers of Pittsburgh a pretty penny while doing so. On the flip side, Farm to Flame Energy was able to better understand how government partnerships and processes work while establishing connections with other local entities such as the Pittsburgh Zoo. Although this PGH Lab cohort has come to an end, the discoveries and opportunities identified with this cohort have just started to take shape.
Having watched this process unfold these past six months I can say two things come to my top of mind. Start where you are, and progress iteratively with feedback. We went into this partnership with an idea and a direction but quickly discovered that the challenges and scope of the project would require us to pivot quickly. By starting where we were, the team was able to flex and tackle any challenges that came our way. We may not have succeeded in charging any vehicles, but by moving forward with the feedback we received we opened a lot of eyes as to what is possible when innovation and drive meet. Now with the feedback from the pilots conclusion, decision makers are now armed with a first hand account of what exactly is possible here in Pittsburgh.
We started, we pivoted, we learned. Now the real work begins.
The PGH Lab 8.0 application will be live through October 21st, 2022 and can be found on the PGH Lab homepage.
