Aberdeen hydrogen fuelling station opened
Aberdeen’s hydrogen production and bus refuelling station has been officially opened, as part of a £19m green transport demonstration project. Described as a UK first, the equipment will fuel ten Van Hool hydrogen fuel cell buses, six of which will be operated by Stagecoach on the X17 Aberdeen city centre to Westhill route, while First will operate four on the X40 Kingswells to Bridge of Don park-and-ride route. The buses will only emit water vapour, reducing carbon emissions and air pollution, as well as being quieter and smoother to run than diesel vehicles. The refuelling station, at Aberdeen City Council’s Kittybrewster depot, is owned and operated by BOC, a Member of the Linde Group. It has been delivered as part of the Aberdeen City Council led project which is testing the economic and environmental benefits of hydrogen transport technologies and aims to drive the development of hydrogen technologies. The Aberdeen Hydrogen Bus Project, which has backing from Europe, the UK Government and the Scottish Government, as well as a broad range of private sector partners, is the most high profile of a range of projects designed to create a hydrogen economy in the city.
Van Hool CEO, Filip Van Hool, said, ‘As the coordinator of the High VLOCity fuel cell bus project, a partner in HyTransit and the supplier of the fuel cell buses, Van Hool is very proud to be an intrinsic part of the Aberdeen Hydrogen Bus Project, the largest fuel cell bus deployment in all of Europe. We congratulate the team on this achievement and the professionalism with which it was accomplished, despite the many challenges.’
MD of Stagecoach North Scotland, Steve Walker, said, ‘The launch of this project is great news for our customers who will be able to travel on even greener vehicles than before. We are committed to reducing the impact of our operations on the environment through a number of measures including alternative fuels, energy efficiency, increased recycling and reduced water consumption and we will continue to work to further reduce our carbon footprint in the months and years to come.’
First Aberdeen MD, David Phillips, said, ‘We are delighted to be a partner in this exciting and ground-breaking project for Aberdeen. Our four hydrogen powered vehicles are already out in service and proving really popular with customers. The hydrogen buses complement our £4.3m investment last year in 26 micro-hybrid vehicles, one of the world’s most fuel-efficient buses.’