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Fuel cells in buses
Buses and fleet vehicles are likely to be the first modes of transportation to widely use fuel cells because these vehicles "go home" each night to a central point for refueling. That central point can be equipped with a hydrogen filling station.
Today, buses are already running on UTC Power fuel cells every day in North America and Europe.
UTC Power currently has four 120kW zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell buses operating in California by AC Transit and SunLine Transit. These four buses are hybrid configuration city buses. Three buses are operating in the Oakland area, and the fourth, in the Palm Springs area.
2002 - A Thor bus powered by UTC Power was the first fuel cell hybrid bus to enter into passenger service in California. The 30-foot ThunderPower bus was operated by SunLine Transit Agency, which has used the fuel cell-powered bus for daily passenger service. The bus was later operated by AC Transit in Oakland, California, through October 2004-exceeding its design life by 50%.
2000 - UTC Power signed partnership agreements with Thor Industries, the largest maker of midsize buses in the United States, and Irisbus, one of the largest European makers of buses. Irisbus built two hybrid buses powered by UTC Power power plants. One bus provides passenger service in Madrid, Spain, and another is running in Turin, Italy.
UTC Power was one of the first companies to incorporate fuel cells into buses:
1998 - Working with the U.S. Department of Transportation and Georgetown University, UTC Power integrated a 100-kilowatt phosphoric acid fuel cell system into a full-sized bus. The bus, capable of running on a number of fuels including methanol and compressed natural gas, is currently operating as a student shuttle service on the Georgetown campus and has more than 8,000 hours of operation. Building on that success, UTC Power incorporated its proprietary PEM fuel cell technology into city buses.
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