U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has earmarked $13.1 million in federal funding for 11 innovative research and demonstration projects under FTA’s National Fuel Cell Bus Program. The program advances hydrogen fuel cell power for transit buses and reflects the Obama Administration’s commitment to address our nation’s energy challenges, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and promote cleaner air.
“President Obama is advocating an all-of-the-above energy strategy for the United States, which includes adopting alternative fuels that let transit agencies bypass the gas pump altogether and reduce our carbon footprint,” said Secretary LaHood. “This investment moves us closer to achieving the President’s goal of reducing oil imports by a third in a little over a decade.”
According to the National Renewable Energy Lab and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), every fuel cell-powered bus put into service in the U.S. could reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by 100 tons annually and eliminate the need for 9,000 gallons of fuel every year over the life of the vehicle. For buses currently running on diesel fuel, that translates into a savings of more than $37,000 per year, per vehicle.
This is all well and good – but if the plan is to stick fuel cells into current production bus bodies – good luck achieving any meaningful results. The added weight of the fuel cell and batteries will significantly increase the GVWR of traditional buses, increasing the rolling resistance, decreasing the passenger-to-GVWR ratio, increasing maintenance costs(fuel cell buses require substantially more maintenance than even diesel ICE) and generally raising the operating costs for transit agencies using them. These costs will never be offset by the fuel savings – unless of course the weight of the bus itself is substantially reduced and the maintenance costs offset by composite bodies that do not corrode and have a useful life of 18 years, thus allowing the transit agencies to recoup their investment and benefit from the fuel savings.