Consortium push for hydrogen fuel cell powered public transport bus fleets across Australia
Energy storage and clean fuel company, ITM Power, has announced the formation of the H2OzBus Project with strategic partners.
The H2OzBus Project Consortium comprises Transit Systems, part of the SeaLink Travel Group, Ballard Power Systems, BOC Limited, Palisade Investment Partners and ITM Power. The Consortium partners have signed a memorandum of understanding as a further step in evaluating and demonstrating the concept of hydrogen fuel cell electric buses for use in public bus transport in Australia.
The Consortium will collaborate to further investigate deploying an initial 100 hydrogen fuel cell electric buses in cities across Australia, with the intention to use this as a seed for more widespread roll-out.
This initial phase will focus on infrastructure requirements and detailed plans for use of hydrogen fuel cell electric buses on bus routes in up to 10 central hub locations across Australia where interest and demand for fuel cell buses has already been identified.
Each consortium member brings a specialised area of expertise to the project. ITM Power and BOC will provide the hydrogen production and refuelling infrastructure; Ballard Power Systems will supply the fuel cell system to be integrated into the electric buses supplied by supporting bus manufacturers; Transit Systems, will maintain and operate the vehicles as part of their daily urban transit operations (or within a strategically located project managed by Transit Systems), and: Palisade Investment Partners will assist in providing funding and strategic financial oversight.
Integrating hydrogen in light transport and rolling out hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in major cities is one of the key priorities outlined in the Federal Government’s National Hydrogen Strategy.
