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Going green with electric carts
New electric carts on campus benefit the environment
Brittany Blust / Roundup
Pierce takes a step in the green direction starting this semester by adding electric carts, as well as electric car charging stations, to maintain the campus.
The electric carts were acquired during the construction of the Maintenance and Operations Building that was completed on Dec. 1, 2011.
There are three 72-volt carts and five 48-volt carts on campus, Director of Facilities Paul Nieman said.
The charging stations located at the Maintenance and Operations Building are for the electric carts used on campus only and are not open to the public, including students, at this time.
“It’s better than gas because it improves the environment, but the school should use the money to open more classes like biology, chemistry, and math,”Arvin Agcaoili, an environmental science major, said.
Three of the electric carts were obtained through the Resource Recovery Program using money from the bond project, and five were budgeted in the project for the Maintenance and Operations building.
"The carts are great," biology professor Pat Harris said. "[They are] better than exhaust vehicles going up and down, quiet for classes and [we need them] because of the pollution value, especially with the campus getting so big."
The electric carts are clean, easy to control, noiseless and do not require as much maintenance as a combustion engine.
Each electric cart that replaces a gas-powered cart saves at least 10 gallons a month in gas for the school.
The gas-powered carts had a 10 gallon tank and would require filling once, sometimes twice in a month.
“We need things that can handle moving large weight around and the batteries might run down way too fast,” said Nieman.
The campus still needs gas-powered vehicles for maintenance, and will not be converting all of vehicles to electric ones in the near future.
