Birmingham City Council has unveiled the first of 20 new hydrogen buses, which are set to be in operation later this year.
The new buses have been purchased as part of the council’s Clean Air Hydrogen Bus Pilot, which looks to “kick-start” the hydrogen market as a viable zero-emission fuel.
The technology has been hailed by Birmingham City Council as another solution to tackling the city’s poor air quality and a key step towards achieving the council’s net zero carbon target.
“Fuel-cell buses offer a practical solution for cities to decarbonise public transport and immediately improve air quality,” said Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for transport and environment, councillor Waseem Zaffar.
“The delivery of the first bus is great news for our city and the rest of the region. It means that we can now work with our partners at National Express to start testing the buses, training drivers and adding livery design before rolling the buses out for the public in autumn this year.”
The buses, which are made by Wrightbus, are reportedly the world’s first zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cell double-deckers. They will be operated in Birmingham by National Express – the first in England outside of London.
It’s intended that Birmingham’s Clean Air Hydrogen Bus Pilot will be the catalyst for the next generation of hydrogen buses, hydrogen production and re-fuelling infrastructure development.
It has been funded through the Office for Low Emission Vehicles,Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, Birmingham City Council and JIVE project funding from the Fuel Cell Hydrogen Joint Undertaking)under grant agreement No 735582.
Birmingham City Council has also collaborated with ITM, which will produce and dispense the hydrogen fuel from a new re-fuelling hub at Tyseley Energy Park.
