EU declares hydrogen bus project a success

A CUTE bus, powered by hydrogen

The European Union has declared its pilot programme to promote the use of hydrogen-powered vehicles a success - and announced a further €105 million scheme to prime the commercialisation of clean transport.

The results from the world’s largest trial of hydrogen fuel powered buses were released last week at the Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) conference in Hamburg.

Since mid-2003 27 public transport buses have covered more than a million kilometres and carried more than four million passengers in nine European cities. They produced no emissions, and there were no accidents.

Based on this success, the Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, unveiled a more ambitious second phase, Hydrogen for Transport, which will involve the daily operation of around 200 hydrogen-powered vehicles, along with the supporting infrastructure.

“This project marks a milestone in the history of clean transport energy technology and opens the way to a new era of sustainable transport systems,” said Piebalgs.

“The question is no longer whether this technology works, but when it will be competitive.”

Buses run under the CUTE project were powered by hydrogen fuel cells – electro-chemical devices that use oxygen from air in combination with hydrogen to generate electricity and drive an electric motor – that produce zero emissions.

The achievements of the project, which took place on the streets of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Stockholm and Stuttgart, include:

• the design, construction and operation of nine different hydrogen supply chains and refuelling stations;
  
  
• the production and use of 192 tonnes of hydrogen, of which 100 tonnes came from renewable resources;
  
  
• safely carrying out almost 9,000 refuelling operations;
  
  
• bus availability of more than 90 per cent.

The successor project, Hydrogen for Transport, will put 200 hydrogen-fuelled vehicles on the roads over the next three years. Of the total investment of €105 million, the Commission is contributing €48 million.