CANTON -- The cleanest city buses in the state are about to begin rolling here. They will be powered by 150,000-watt fuel cells, and the only thing they will emit is water.

The Stark Area Regional Transit Authority, or SARTA, is about to roll out a fleet of 10 of these zero-emission vehicles. Fuel cells combine on-board hydrogen -- stored on the roof of the vehicle -- with oxygen from the air to generate electricity.

SARTA this week opened its $1.6 million hydrogen refueling station and demonstrated the capability of the first vehicle of its fleet. The station was built with a grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation. The bus fleet purchase has been funded by local, state and federal grants.

Rated at 200-horsepower, the 33,000 pound vehicle slid smoothly out of the fueling station, carrying state and federal officials as well as representatives of the engineering companies and laboratories that built the vehicle's complicated systems.

Members of the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition, a 50-member trade group representing Ohio-based researchers and companies that manufacture components used in fuel cells, were also on hand to mark the day as the opening event in the group's annual conference, which runs today at Stark State College in North Canton.

The bus fleet -- which will be the third largest fuel cell fleet in the nation -- represent Ohio's manufacturing future, a future in which fuel cells will power automobiles as well as mass transit vehicles.

And that is no longer just a dream. Car makers, including Honda, Toyota and Hyundai, have already launched fuel-cell vehicles, said Nancy Garland, a U.S. Department of Energy researcher.

Copley Republican State Sen. Frank LaRose called the occasion "a great collaboration between the local, state and federal level" to fund the project."

"This is Ohio technology. This research is being done here in the public and private sectors that will lead to not only a cleaner transportation future but also to great jobs," he said.

The sticker price of the fuel cell buses is currently about $1 million, said SARTA executive director Kirt Conrad. But that is expected to fall over the next decade to about $750,000.

The buses achieve a mileage rating of about 7 to 9 miles per gallon (diesel equivalent), said Conrad, twice as efficient as diesel-powered buses.

This first bus, which will begin service in a couple of weeks, has been operating on the Ohio State University campus since January while the OSU Center for Automotive Research used it for research. The rest of the fleet is expected to arrive over the next few months.