Iowa Energy Center Press Releases

First day of school for hybrid electric buses in Iowa

AMES - January 17, 2008 (note: media event on January 24, 10 a.m. in Nevada and 2 p.m. in Sigourney)

Two hybrid electric school buses are on the road for the Nevada and Sigourney- Keota Community Schools as part of a National Hybrid Electric School Bus Project, partially funded through a grant from the Iowa Energy Center to the Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) at Iowa State University.

“The goal is to demonstrate a market to a manufacturer that will then embark on mass production of the hybrid buses,” said Dennis Kroeger, research specialist at CTRE.  “It’s a ‘which comes first’ situation – the demand or the hybrid buses?” While hybrid electric vehicle technology in passenger cars and transit buses is readily available, the technology has not been adapted for school buses.  The benefits of the technology in school buses include improved fuel economy, reduced emissions and reduced operating costs. 

Advanced Energy (an independent, non-profit organization focused on improving
energy efficiency) is leading the national Hybrid Electric School Bus project, which has formed a Buyers Consortium to develop specifications, and has organized a group of over twenty purchasers.  Nevada and Sigourney- Keota Community Schools were among the purchasers.

“The Energy Center's participation in the bus project, along with all the other national sponsors, proved a force that moved manufacturers to develop the first generation of hybrid electric school buses," said Floyd Barwig, director of the Iowa Energy Center. "We look forward to having CTRE analyze the energy and environmental performance of the buses so we can pass that information along to other schools in Iowa.”

According to the Iowa Department of Education, each year more than 5,600 school buses roll along Iowa roads logging millions of miles, idling for hours on end while consuming over $14 million worth of diesel fuel each year, and producing thousands of tons of emissions that effect both the atmosphere and the health of the children who ride them.  Two hybrid electric school buses won’t have a huge impact on overall fuel consumption by the state’s schools and Iowa’s air quality, but it is the start of a movement to make the technology commercially available and therefore, more affordable to implement by economies of scale in production.

The two Iowa schools have each committed $70,000 (the cost of a new combustion engine bus), and the Energy Center's grant to CTRE will be used for data collection and analysis as well as for support of the consotrium. The Iowa schools received support from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Bus Education Emissions Program and the Iowa Assoication of School Boards.

Participants in the project:  Advanced Energy (lead), CTRE, New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, State Technologies Advancement Collaborative, North Carolina Department of Public Education, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Florida Department of Education, South Carolina Department of Education, New York Power Authority, School Districts in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Texas, and Washington.