NAPA, Calif. — Last week, the Napa Valley Unified School District received a plug-in diesel-electric school bus through funding from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the EPA's Clean School Bus USA program and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The Napa school district is the first in the state, and one of only seven school districts in the U.S., to receive a hybrid bus.

The bus was built by IC Corporation and Enova Systems. It operates on a diesel engine and an electric battery activates when needed to reduce the amount of diesel fuel used to power the engine. To that end, it is expected to reduce fuel emissions by up to 90 percent and improve fuel economy by 70 to 100 percent.

Additional school districts around the country will be receiving hybrid buses later this year. Those districts are members of a buyers consortium that was initiated by Raleigh, N.C.-based Advanced Energy as part of a nationwide initiative called the Plug-In Hybrid Electric School Bus Project. State energy agencies and pupil transportation providers are also part of the consortium.

The following Advanced Energy consortium members have received, or will receive, hybrid buses:

• Napa Valley (Calif.) Unified School District — 1 bus (delivered)

  
  

• Lake Chelan (Wash.) School District — 1 bus (delivered)

  
  

• Little Rock (Ark.) School District — 1 bus (delivered)

  
  

• North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (Raleigh, N.C.) — 2 buses (delivered)

  
  

• Jennings Transportation (Nazareth, Pa.) — 1 bus (delivered)

  
  

• Florida Department of Education (Tallahassee, Fla.) — 2 buses (delivered)

  
  

• South Carolina Department of Education (Columbia, S.C.) — 2 buses

  
  

• State of New York — 2 buses

  
  

• Durham School Services (Everett, Wash.) — 1 bus

  
  

• City of Seattle — 1 bus

  
  

• Sigourney (Iowa) Community School District — 1 bus

  
  

• Nevada (Iowa) Community Schools — 1 bus

  
  

• Killeen (Texas) Independent School District — 1 bus

  
  

• Austin (Texas) Independent School District — 1 bus

  
  

• Fairfax County, Va. — 1 bus

  For more information on the Plug-In Hybrid Electric School Bus Project, visit www.hybridschoolbus.org.