By Steven Wisbaum of the Mow Electric! Campaign
and Jeff Grout of TRORC
June 29, 2023
On a recent sun-splashed day in late June, the Two Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC), Green Mountain Power, Sustainable Woodstock, the Vermont Clean Cities Coalition, and the Mow Electric! Campaign teamed up with Woodstock Union High School to host a highly successful commercial E-lawn equipment demo event.
A large number of people took the opportunity to try out an impressive collection of state-of-the-art battery-electric riding mowers, leaf blowers, and string trimmers. Attendees included representatives from public works and recreation departments from Woodstock, Norwich, Bradford, and Rutland, the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services (BGS), the Billings Farm & Museum, and Dartmouth College — as well as elected officials and local lawn maintenance contractors.
As an indication of the growth of the commercial E-lawn equipment industry and proof that electric equipment can provide the all-day run times necessary for commercial applications, five manufacturers including Gravely, Toro, Mean Green, Greenworks, and EGO participated in this event.
In fact, thousands of municipalities, colleges, public schools, and contractors across the country have already begun the transition to E-lawn care equipment. In Vermont, E-lawn equipment is now being used by at least ten contractors, the City of Burlington, the Burlington Airport, Shelburne Farms, and the University of Vermont.
The fact that this transition is beginning to happen in Vermont is important because according to a recent analysis by the Federal Highway Administration, gas-powered lawn mowers used by Vermonters consume over 5 million gallons of gasoline annually, and this doesn’t even include the millions of gallons of diesel fuel consumed by the commercial mowers used by contractors, municipal and state governments, colleges/universities, golf courses, resorts, etc. Burning all this fossil fuel is emitting hundreds of thousands of pounds of CO2 into our planet's atmosphere— in addition to the immediate effects of noise and air pollution on the people nearby.
There are significant operating cost savings with E-lawn care equipment, yest its purchase price is higher than conventional equipment — in large part because of the relatively high cost of the large lithium ion batteries needed to provide “all-day” run times. To help reduce these higher startup costs, all of Vermont’s electric utilities now offer incentives and/or rebates between $1,000 and $3,500 to purchase commercial E-mowers. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) also administers an EPA diesel emissions reduction grant program to replace equipment with diesel engines, including lawn mowers.
Information about available E-lawn equipment and incentives is available from your local electric utility, the Mow Electric! Campaign, the Vermont Clean Cities Coalition, TRORC, and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. To be notified about future commercial E-mower demo events around the state, contact Steven Wisbaum at steven@mowelectric.org.