Aspen, Colo.’s Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) placed a new order for eight 40-foot, battery-electric New Flyer Xcelsior CHARGE™ heavy-duty transit buses.

The order, which includes the zero-emission buses as well as four ABB 150 kWh depot chargers purchased from New Flyer Infrastructure Solutions™, supports RFTA and the City of Aspen’s battery-electric bus pilot program, made possible by grants and local funding. The project will operate using Colorado’s clean-energy grid, which draws energy from solar power and was ranked 11th for solar energy generation in 20161, the same year Colorado produced 925.8 MW of solar energy and invested more than $510 million to expand solar energy.

RFTA is the regional transportation authority providing bus service to the Colorado communities of Aspen, Snowmass Village, Pitkin County, Basalt, and portions of Eagle County, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, and New Castle. It is the second largest transit system in Colorado and the largest rural transit system in the U.S., providing over 5.1 million passenger trips per year.