The Go-Ahead Group has agreed a 15-year hydrogen supply deal with industrial gas company Air Products to power a fleet of fuel cell buses, which will be deployed in the Gatwick Airport, Crawley and Horley area.
The single-decker GB Kite Hydroliner buses, manufactured by Wrightbus in Northern Ireland, will be delivered in June. The buses will be the first hydrogen powered vehicles in Go-Ahead’s fleet of more than 6,000 buses.
Hydrogen will be stored at the Metrobus Crawley depot in liquid form, before being converted to gas held in tanks on the roof of vehicles.
Ed Wills, managing director, Brighton & Hove Buses and Metrobus, said: “We went through a rigorous process before selecting Air Products as our supplier. We were impressed not only with their experience in this field but with the assurance that they would be ready to begin supplying us at volume from day one.”
The single-decker fuel cell buses are funded in part with money from UK government and European Union zero-emission bus schemes, plus investment from Gatwick Airport. A further order of 34 buses would bring the fleet to 54 vehicles, which Go-Ahead said would be the largest local fleet of hydrogen buses deployed in Europe to date.
As well as producing zero carbon emissions, hydrogen buses are designed to have long range capabilities and can be refuelled quickly in depots.
While, Go-Ahead has a fleet of 300 electric buses, but this is the group’s first venture into hydrogen. Go-Ahead has set a target of transitioning to a zero-emission bus fleet across the UK by 2035.
Christian Schreyer, group chief executive, The Go-Ahead Group, added: “This is our first hydrogen supply deal, and it represents a milestone in our plans to transition Go-Ahead’s entire fleet of buses to zero emission fuel.
“We’re delighted to be working with Air Products and with Wrightbus. This is an example of what can be achieved through a mixture of public and private funding, and of co-operation between different environmentally responsible partners.”
