On Tuesday night, the city is probably going to approve a loan guarantee, in partnership with Peoria County, for Firefly Energy. This will allow Firefly to establish their headquarters here in Peoria and employ 65 people locally. Assuming they’re successful, which seems pretty likely, it won’t cost the city or county a thing. In fact, the city and county will receive $480,000 of common stock.

So here’s the little brainstorm I had*, for what it’s worth: I believe Firefly should have a place to showcase their battery technology. How about if they showcase it in CityLink buses?

Imagine if CityLink buses ran on Firefly batteries. With gasoline prices skyrocketing, I’ll bet the cost savings in fuel would be enough that CityLink could afford to run the buses more frequently and increase ridership as a result. It would also get Peoria a lot of press — even nationally — especially if they weren’t typical hybrid buses but 100% battery-powered.

Maybe it’s a pipe dream, but why not at least explore the idea? I figure, as gas prices climb, there’s going to be increased demand for convenient and affordable public transportation. That’s going to require the buses to come more frequently than once every half-hour during peak times or hour during non-peak times. In order to make it economical to provide that additional service, either fares are going to have to go up or costs are going to have to be cut somehow. It seems reasonable that Firefly battery technology — especially if it were donated as a marketing strategy — could provide enough cost savings to make improved frequency possible. I’ll bet there’s even a federal grant or two out there that could help defray the costs of a feasibility study and/or implementation.

Maybe someone can run the idea past Ray LaHood. If he shoots it down, we’ll know we have a winner.

*Hat tip: Sharon Deckard, who had the idea to run a Firefly battery-powered trolley on the Kellar Branch. That was the seed for my idea to put the batteries in buses.