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Santa Ana Driving for a Greener Tomorrow
December 24, 2010
When it comes to a commitment to renewable green energy, the City of Santa Ana doesn’t just walk the talk, it drives it.
For the past two year city workers selectively have been driving five hydrogen-powered Toyota Priuses as part of a pilot project with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Their use will now expand as the vehicles become part of the city’s motor pool and are used every day, according to Rick Longobart , head of the city’s Fleet and Stores department.
“We’ve changed how we use the vehicles and how they are deployed,” he said. “Now when employees go to mass transit centers ,such as the train station, they are using the Priuses.”
Along with the smog-free vehicles, the city operates a pioneering hydrogen fueling station to keep the vehicles on the road and in use.
To make sure everyone is aware of Santa Ana’s new commitment to innovative clean air technology, the city recently equipped the previously all-white vehicles with colorful green wraps on its doors and hood that proclaim: Driving for a Greener Tomorrow.
Santa Ana is one of five Southland cities partnering with AQMD to demonstrate five hydrogen fueling stations and a total of 30 hybrid Priuses with internal combustion engines that have been modified to burn gaseous hydrogen. The other cities include Burbank, Ontario, Riverside and Santa Monica. Each city and AQMD will operate five hydrogen-fueled Priuses for five years.
“Santa Ana is proud to be a pioneer in the use of this innovative clean air technology,” said Miguel Pulido, Mayor of Santa Ana and a Governing Board Member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “These car perform like regular gasoline cars and yet they emit no global warming gases and meet the state’s strictest standard for smog-forming pollutants.”
Each hydrogen-fueled Prius has a compressed gas fuel cylinder that holds up to 1.6 kilograms of hydrogen, giving the vehicles a range of up to 80 miles per fill. (One kilogram of hydrogen is roughly equivalent to the energy content of one gallon of gasoline.)
The city recently was honored as having one of the ”Top 100 Best Fleets in North America” by Torrance-based publisher Bobit Business Media and the Municipal Equipment Maintenance Association. The city was selected from 38,000 eligible municipal agencies.
