First hydrogen refueling station under development in Barcelona
The Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium (CZFB) and Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) have signed an agreement to develop a hydrogen refueling station to be built by TMB, through a tender, and that will service fleets of passenger and goods vehicles in the Barcelona area, with the aim of moving towards a new zero-emission mobility. In turn, the project, which has the collaboration of the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM), will lead to the first public hydrogen station in Spain.
The agreement signed by the special delegate of the State at CZFB Pere Navarro and the president of TMB Rosa Alarcón has established to allocate a plot of the 5,000-square-meter industrial estate, where a hydrogen production, storage and refueling facility will be built to be used by TMB buses, as well as other fleets in the area and private vehicles that adopt fuel cells and hydrogen as an alternative energy solution.
Once the destination of the parcel has been finalized, TMB will search a supplier to install a hydrogen refueling station open to the public, although the main objective of this infrastructure is to supply TMB buses. The lease for this plot will have an initial duration of 10 years, and will be subject to successive extensions of 5 years, up to a maximum of 40 years in total duration.
In parallel, TMB is launching a tender to acquire the first hydrogen fuel cell buses in its fleet, after the experiment of the CUTE project of 2003-2005. Specifically, there will be eight 12-meter standard buses, which will arrive in Barcelona in November 2021 and are expected to join the service at the beginning of 2022. The vehicles will be assigned to the Business Operative Center of the Free Zone and will refuel at the station created from this agreement, with an estimated consumption of 160 kg of hydrogen per day.
The acquisition of the eight zero-emission buses has a budget of 6.5 million euros and is supported by the European program JIVE 2 for the promotion of fuel cell and zero-emission vehicles, co-financed by the European Union. This commitment to hydrogen is part of TMB’s strategic option for the modernization and greening of its bus fleet, always with the sustainable purchasing criteria.
