Revving up for EV Transition

Written by: Helen Deng '26 and Xander Dalke '27, Dartmouth Sustainability Interns

 Dartmouth’s solar EV charger powers commuter vehicles with 100 percent renewable energy.

Xander: When I first saw the news that Dartmouth was committing to ambitious plans to decarbonize our campus, I was ecstatic! I felt pride that our school was going down the right path towards a more sustainable future, and I also felt excited that the project coincides with my four years on campus. This would be a great opportunity for me to get some experience working on energy transitions and leave an impact on this place that I care about. But there was a problem: since it seemed like the plan was already laid out by experts, how could I as a student get involved?

After a few terms of waiting for an opportunity to come up, I decided to create one for myself. This winter, stemming from a conversation at Sustainability Office Hours, I started working for the Office in a “Design Your Own” Internship along with fellow student Helen Deng ‘26. 

Helen: Similarly to Xander, my face lit up when I caught wind of our campus's ambitious climate goals–alas, it feels more and more rare to hear positive environmental news these days, and this felt like a glimmer of hope that I could visibly see while a student. Touring a section of the geoexchange project under construction last August was one of the highlights of my sophomore summer! 

After summer wound down, I said goodbye to Hanover and hello to Hong Kong! On my exchange program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong last fall, I took classes titled "Renewable Energy Technologies" and "Sculpting Moulding and Casting," while continuing research on offshore wind remotely. Though the experience of being abroad was filled with novelty and full circle experiences, I couldn't help but long for a way to translate my passion and ideas in the realm of sustainability into lasting impact. This itch kept tugging at me all the way until my arrival back onto campus, where, much like Xander, I decided to take things into my own hands–It was an ardent desire of mine to "plug back in" to the Sustainability Office's workings and in some small way, contribute to campus decarbonization. After talking to Sustainability staff about my bolstered sense of self and renewed goals in the sustainability realm, I embarked on this Transportation EV internship with Xander! 

Xander: Together, we are working on identifying and alleviating barriers to Dartmouth transitioning to electric vehicles, a key step towards reducing Scope 1 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. 

Helen: Our first challenge? Identifying barriers to the campus EV transition on campus. After meeting up with Xander for the first time, we trekked all the way out to the Grounds building in the Dewey parking lot to meet up with the Director of Grounds Doug Cosentino as well as chat with employees that regularly use the electric golf carts as utility vehicles. The long trek was worth it!

Xander: One of the most eye-opening aspects of this internship has been interviewing people from different corners of campus I might otherwise not get the chance to converse with, including people in Facilities Management, Planning Transportation, and Engineering. This has broadened my perspective on Dartmouth, and now I notice things in the daily operations and design of this place that I previously didn’t or just took for granted. 

Helen and Xander both rode along with College electrician John Biele to map grid capacity to inform future charger siting.

Helen: One of the highlights of our interviews was a spontaneous heating plant tour with one of the kind staff members as we headed out of McKenzie Hall! We strapped on our hard hats and even peered into the fires of the vast furnace in one of the boiler rooms. Another highlight was when the day after we heard the origin story of Dartmouth Print & Mail Services's black electric mail van, we saw it making its way across campus and were able to say hi in person!

Xander: I’m particularly proud of the amount of diverse viewpoints and anecdotes that we collected, and the amount of knowledge we were able to gather from that. I felt like we were breaking out of the removed sphere of academic work and sustainability theory, and starting to work in the real world more. Sometimes at Dartmouth it feels like you can live and think in an abstract world all the time, which can be frustrating. It has been really refreshing to get away from the ivory tower a little bit, tackle some complicated and modern problems, and see the beginnings of the impact of my efforts on the college and the people in it.