A new hydrogen fuel cell bus will be developed by BAE Systems for a South California regional transit agency in an effort to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of hydrogen fuel cell technology.
Under the terms of the project, BAE will serve as the systems integrator and deliver a vehicle to SunLine Transit thanks to funding from the California South Coast Air Quality Management District, CALSTART, the Federal Transit Administration and the California Air Resources Board.
The bus will be part of the National Fuel Cell Bus Program and will use an FCvelocity-HD6 fuel cell power module that has been supplied by Ballard Power Systems. It is expected to be delivered by December 2011 and Rich Hopf, the general manager of vehicle systems for BAE Systems, is hopeful that it will showcase the evolution in technology from partial to zero emissions.
It’s not the first time that HybriDrive propulsion technology has been utilised – it has been in daily revenue service on buses in New York and other cities since 1998 and there are now more than 2,500 buses that use the technology carrying around one million passengers daily.
The HybriDrive system uses a diesel engine coupled to a generator and an advanced lithium-ion based energy storage system that increases battery life while reducing vehicle weight.
As for SunLine, it has been working with alternative fuel buses since 1994 and earlier this year introduced its sixth generation hydrogen fuel cell bus – the 40ft low-floor New Flyer Model.
