Gravesham Borough Council’s vehicle fleet, including its household waste collection HGVs, is being converted to run on HVO as part of the authority’s work towards tackling climate change.
The council’s fleet is made up of 134 vans, of which 18 are electric, and 24 HGVs. They consume around 320,000 litres of diesel per year.
The Council says that while a programme of replacing smaller vans with electric alternatives at the end of their natural life has helped, the challenge of reducing carbon emissions from the HGV fleet has been harder.
Cllr Emma Morley, cabinet member for operational services, says: “Fully electric HGV waste collection vehicles remain very expensive and many local authorities are investigating alternative fuels as a result.
“The cost of electrifying our entire fleet is estimated to be in the region of £12m. That does not take into account the considerable investment we would need to make at our depot in Northfleet to increase the power supply to the site and install the infrastructure needed to charge the vehicles. That’s clearly not an option.
“The beauty of HVO is converting to it is much simpler. It’s a direct replacement for diesel and so there is no need to make any modifications to our vehicles and we can use the fuel tanks already in place for storage.”
While some electric vans will be used where appropriate, plans are to use HVO to fuel the majority of that fleet too.
The first delivery of HVO to the council’s depot was made at the end of November when the conversion process began. The plan is for all non-electric vehicles to be running on the new fuel from April.
