INTERNATIONAL
French village breaks ground on new H2 station, will serve FEBUS system
The construction works of the refueling station have started to prepare the way for FEBUS, the first worldwide BRT system using hydrogen fuel cell buses. The project is located in Pau, in southwestern France. In addition to the hydrogen refueling infrastructure, the bus depot will be reshuffled and a new maintenance workshop will be built.
The station will provide 100% green fuel: hydrogen will be produced 100% locally with 100% renewable electricity. The daily production capacity will be 174 to 268 kg of hydrogen. The facility will be operated by ENGIE/GNVERT and will include an ITM Power electrolyzer.
The BRT system, operated by SMTU (Syndicat Mixte de Transports Urbains), will feature eight Van Hool Exqui.City hydrogen-powered buses (three co-financed by the 3Emotion project and five by the JIVE project), which will have a minimum range of 240 km and will be able to transport 1,000 passengers/hour: this equals the same performance as a tramway with 4 times less investment. The first vehicles will be operational in September 2019.
The FEBUS project is part of the JIVE2 project, which is co-funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 779563.
