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Hydrogen Bus Alliance Calls for Industry Support
25 September 2007
The Hydrogen Bus Alliance, currently chaired by Transport for London (TfL), is calling on suppliers in the hydrogen and bus manufacturing industries to join forces with it.
The Alliance comprises representatives from the public transport authorities of international cities and regions that have demonstrated a clear commitment to hydrogen technology. At present, the alliance represents a cumulative fleet of more than 12,000 buses and an average yearly purchase of more than 1,200 city buses each year.
Many of the partners have already taken part in successful trials of hydrogen buses. They have all made a commitment to buy at least five new hydrogen buses to begin operating between 2008 and 2012. One goal of the Alliance is to ensure that hydrogen buses can compete with their diesel counterparts in terms of cost and performance by 2015.
Before the partners can make a major, long-term commitment to hydrogen technology, a number of technical and commercial requirements must be met. To that end, the Alliance launched an “Industry Dialogue” inviting suppliers and key industry experts to provide a formal and confidential input into the Alliance’s planning process for bus procurement between 2010 and 2015.
The Hydrogen Bus Alliance is proof positive that there is a market for hydrogen technology in the public transport sector. And, what's more, that there is the political will to support the development of that technology. However, we need to work with suppliers to ensure that our aspirations are realistic.
As part of the Mayor’s plans to tackle climate change, TfL is in the process of buying ten hydrogen buses, and while we are prepared to pay a premium for these early models, we need reassurances that costs can and will come down in the very near future. Those assurances will allow us to plan for a rapid expansion of hydrogen buses in the fleets of our contractors.
—Peter Hendy, Commissioner for TfL
The Hydrogen Bus Alliance formed in October 2006, when a number of international cities and regions first signed a Memorandum of Understanding that they would work together to develop and procure hydrogen fuel cell buses and make the technology commercially viable. The current Chair of the Alliance is London Buses, a subsidiary of TfL. The Alliance comprises the public transport authorities in the following cities and regions:
- Amsterdam (GVB)
- Barcelona (TNB)
- Berlin (BVG)
- British Columbia (BC Transit)
- Cologne (Regionalverkehr Köln)
- Hamburg (Hamburger Hochbahn)
- London (Transport for London)
- South Tyrol
- Western Australia (Public Transport Authority of Western Australia)
The Alliance aims to have communicated with key industry figures by the end of January 2008, with a draft action plan prepared by spring 2008. There will then be a consultation with the industry on the draft proposal, with a final approved action plan expected to be complete, and shared with the industry, by summer 2008.
September 25, 2007 in Heavy-duty, Hydrogen | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: a.b | September 25, 2007 at 08:16 AM
Were will the hydrogen come from? Transport for London ran a fuel cell bus, was much worse for global warming than diesel. Buses should run on bio-methane, made from waste. Zero carbon, sustainable. Lille run all their buses on bio-methane, everywhere should
Posted by: John Baldwin | September 25, 2007 at 10:19 AM
Bio-methane is certainly more economical and practical today. Funny there's not been so much buzz about natural-gas buses lately. Though if these cities arranged to obtain hydrogen via solar/wind/wave electricity, these buses wouldn't circulate any CO2 in the atmosphere at all, whereas bio-methane, in an ideal world, is really zero net carbon added.
This group's objective is to guarantee a base of hydrogen consumers exists (and, presumably, a reasonably common infrastructure) so that the industry will get started; they don't address at all the sources of the hydrogen.
"while we are prepared to pay a premium for these early models, we need reassurances that costs can and will come down in the very near future"
We'll see!
Posted by: Jim G | September 25, 2007 at 04:18 PM
I would imagine that they would contract with a major hydrogen gas supply company that supplies hydrogen gas to industries for the fuel. It seems like the objective is to get some longer term real world data on these buses before proceeding further.
Posted by: sjc | September 29, 2007 at 04:02 PM
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They said that they hope it will compete in cost and performance with diesel technology in 2015, it's encouraging to know and it's realistic because it's normal that in the beginning new technology cost more but with volume production costs goes down like anything else. The production of hydrogen fuel will go down too in the future with new methods of electrolysis of water like the one with ammonia as a catalyst of the one with sunlight and nanotechnology combine together. Petrol can be replace by a permanent solution. There is the method of stan meyer too that need few electricity to produce hydrogen from water.