IdleAire Technologies is continuing with a rollout of its service, this time in the Heart of Dixie.

Its Advanced Travel Center Electrification service for drivers is the first in Alabama, located at the Petro Stopping Center in Bucksville, off Interstate 20/59, exit 100. The project was officially unveiled Wednesday to the press, though it has been available to drivers since April. This is the company’s 16th location.

The system offers 81 parking spaces where truckers can receive air conditioning or heat without idling their truck, along with other services including satellite television, high-speed Internet access, telephone service and additional electrical outlets.

“Usage at the Alabama site since it opened April 14 has totaled 22,500 hours through June 15,” said Tom Badgett, chief information officer and co-founder of IdleAire. “This means drivers have saved 22,500 gallons of fuel they would have burned to idle their engines to stay comfortable, as well as avoided releasing half a million pounds of diesel emissions."

Since the site opened, Badgett said, IdleAire has signed up about a thousand drivers at the location, adding to the some 80,000 who use the service.

By the end of June, the company hopes to open its 17th location in California. Another 20 are planned to be open by the end of the year.

--by Evan Lockridge, special correspondent