ITM Power and Johnson Matthey announced the opening of ITM Power’s seventh public access hydrogen refueling station (HRS) located at Johnson Matthey, Swindon on the M4 corridor. The opening is being supported by Toyota, Hyundai and Honda.

The new Swindon HRS is ITM Power’s seventh public access HRS and joins Cobham on the M25, Beaconsfield on the M40, Rainham in Kent on the A14, Teddington in London, Rotherham on the M1 and Kirkwall in Orkney.

Located at Johnson Matthey in Swindon, which is home to the company’s fuel cell component manufacturing facility, the new HRS lies just off the M4 linking South Wales with London. It is now open for public and private fleets operating fuel cell electric vehicles. The station uses electricity via a renewable energy contract and water to generate hydrogen on-site with no need for deliveries.

The new HRS is the first of two stations in the UK to be deployed as part of the pan European H2ME2 project, which was funded by the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCHJU) and the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV). A further station to be deployed by ITM Power under H2ME1 will be located at Gatwick Airport and will be opened before the end of this year.

On 11 September at the ‘Zero Emission Vehicle Summit’ in Birmingham, Prime Minister Theresa May outlined the UK Government’s “Road to Zero Strategy” which includes funding of £1.5 billion for ultra-low-emission vehicles by 2020. At the event, the Prime Minister also announced more than £100 million of funding for innovators in ultra-low-emission vehicles and hydrogen technology.

The Road to Zero Strategy maps out in detail how the UK will reach its target for all new cars and vans to be, effectively, zero emission by 2040—and for every car and van to be zero emission by 2050.