In preparation, Fleet Services will be buying more fuel-efficient replacement vehicles next year. We run a lot more alternative-fuel vehicles than most fleets. One of the biggest challenges to alternative fuel vehicles, Harris says, is user acceptance. The advantage to hybrid vehicles, he says, is that you don't have to recharge. And you don't lose any performance capability.
Hybrid technology works in small cars and in very large vehicles as well.
Harris sees these projects as good examples of service units partnering with academic units to find a solution to the fuel crisis on campus. As for natural gas, Roberts, the energy conservation engineer, believes the situation will remain volatile for at least another year. It has put a serious crimp in the state' s electrical and gas infrastructure. Roberts has worked on projects that have cut natural gas use on campus by about 8 percent and electrical energy use by 13 percent. But there is more to do.