Sustainable Transportation: April 2008 Archives

The second of nineteen plug-in hybrid school buses being supplied by Advanced Energy is going to the Nazareth Area School District in Pennsylvania. Nazareth is the first district in Pennsylvania to get one of these new buses which are built IC Corporation and Enova Systems.

The buses use an International diesel V-8 combined with a hybrid powertrain provided by Enova. The hybrid system uses a 22.5kWh lithium-ion battery pack along with the transmission and electric motor in a parallel configuration. Because of the duty cycle of a school bus (a lot of starting and stopping to pickup and drop off kids) they estimate that the fuel economy will be improved by 70-100 percent.

Advanced Energy's PHEV (plug-in hybrid vehicle) project started in 2002 with the realization that school buses could benefit from plug-in hybrid technology. Advanced Energy (www.hybridschoolbus.org/) formed an advisory group to determine the best path forward. With funding from several key sponsors, they completed analyses that evaluated  technical and economic feasibility. Since the launch of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric School Bus Project, multiple organizations have been instrumental to the project�s success. From governments to universities to utilities, these organizations have contributed their time, money and expertise to commercialize plug-in hybrid technology.

While plug-in buses have a short range, the short fleet routes of many buses could easily handle twice-daily plug-in recharges.  Lower operating costs and less maintenance could quickly pay back the initial purchase price.

Additional bus innovations include dual-mode hybrid buses that recover lost energy like a traditional hybrid, and there are compressed natural gas buses which are cleaner than diesel.

Advanced Energy

Located in Raleigh, N.C., Advanced Energy is a North Carolina and national resource that focuses on industrial process technologies, motors and drives testing, and applied building science.

Advanced Energy — formerly called Alternative Energy Corporation, or AEC — was founded in 1980 by the N.C. Utilities Commission to investigate and implement new technologies for distributed generation, load management, conservation and energy efficiency.

The company was set up and still operates to work with member utilities on energy efficiency and conservation projects. Our North Carolina member utilities are Progress Energy [formerly Carolina Power & Light (CP&L)], Duke Energy, Nantahala Power & Light Company, North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and Dominion NC Power.

Advanced Energy is an independent non-profit corporation that is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the governor of North Carolina and the member utilities.

Advanced Energy
909 Capability Drive, Suite 2100
Raleigh, NC 27606-3870
919 857-9000
800 869-8001 [toll free] 
http://www.advancedenergy.org