In November 2014 Ballard and Van Hool jointly launched a dedicated European Service and Parts Centre for fuel cell buses—called ESPACE—to provide support for Ballard-powered Van Hool buses. (Earlier post.) That same month Van Hool and four other major bus OEMs—Daimler Buses (EvoBus), MAN, Solaris Bus & Coach, and VDL Bus & Coach—signed a Letter of Understanding outlining their commitment toward the commercialization and deployment of fuel cell buses in European urban public transport, including their anticipation that around 500-to-1,000 fuel cell buses can be put into service in Europe during the 2017-20 period.

For these newly funded buses, Ballard will deliver its FCvelocity-HD7 product, a next-generation fuel cell power module offering improved durability and reliability together with significant cost reduction (Ballard estimates a 30-40% reduction.) Product enhancements include reduced parts count, fewer moving parts, integrated air compressor and coolant pump along with lower parasitic load.

Ballard’s current generation FCvelocity-HD6 comes in 75 kW and 150 kW configurations, utilizing either one or two Ballard 1100 series PEM fuel cell stacks respectively. The air compressor is separate.		The next-generation FC-velocity-HD7 is scalable from 50 kW to 200 kW, and is expected to come initially in a 100 kW configuration; the air compressor is integrated.

The module will also utilize fuel cell stacks manufactured through a high-volume, low-cost process. These product enhancements and efficient manufacturing process will reduce capital expense and operating costs, providing a more competitive total cost of ownership in comparison with alternative low-emission technologies.

In December 2014, the first two buses powered by Ballard’s prototype FCvelocity-HD7 fuel cell power module were presented to Hamburger Hochbahn AG—transit operator for the City of Hamburg, Germany—and are now part of an operations trial. These buses are based on a new articulated electric bus platform designed by Solaris, incorporating Ballard fuel cell modules as range extenders, in combination with batteries.

The two Solaris buses are part of a trial and evaluation of alternative drive technologies, being undertaken by the City of Hamburg. Buses that use alternative drive technologies will be deployed along a single route by Hamburger Hochbahn, in order to compare performance of each technology under the same operating conditions. Two different fuel cell hybrid bus designs—including the Solaris design—as well as a plug-in hybrid bus platform, will be trialed beginning this month.

The EU Hydrogen Fuel Cell Joint Undertaking is a public-private partnership supporting research, technological development and demonstration activities in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies, providing subsidies for eligible projects through a cost share mechanism. Under Framework FP7, the European Commission and industry have each committed €470 million (US$530 million) of funding for fuel cell & hydrogen research and demonstrations through the 2008-14 period. The next program, Horizon 2020, extends this initiative to the year 2020 with an incremental budget of €700 million (US$790 million), including 50% cost share from the industry.