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DENVER (KDVR) — While the leaves are turning brown, Denver is getting greener.

The City of Denver revealed its brand new, 100% battery-operated street sweeper on Tuesday.

“We want to have a green fleet. We want a fleet of alternative fuel vehicles. So whenever we are out purchasing a unit we look to see: is there an alternative fuel option,“ Nancy Kuhn, from the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, said about the full-size electric street sweeper.

The battery-powered brush costs $575,000, made by Global Environmental Products Inc. — twice the price of a gas-powered machine.

“We were able to purchase it because we got a grant that helped offset the cost of the unit,“ Kuhn said.

“Electricity is still generated primarily by fossil fuels so there is nothing green about electricity right now,“ said Darrin Duber-Smith, Metropolitan State University of Denver professor and senior lecturer.

”It is more feel-good, it’s the direction that industry is going because government is pushing industry in that direction,“ Duber-Smith said.

The fossil fuels required to make an all-electric vehicle outweigh the benefits of zero emissions, according to Duber-Smith.

The City of Denver disagrees and said the initial carbon penalties will be quickly swept away by zero emissions.