THE world’s first hydrogen-powered double decker buses are to hit the streets of Aberdeen in the summer.
First Aberdeen is to run the 15 buses mainly between two of its most popular service routes, Service 19 (Peterculter to Tillydrone) and the Service X27 (City Centre to Aberdeen International Airport via Dyce station).
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The new £8.3million project has been funded by Aberdeen City Council, the Scottish Government, and the European Union (FCH JU), with an investment of about £500,000 per vehicle. It’s also part funded by the European Union’s JIVE project.
The hydrogen double deckers will be arriving in the city in the spring for several weeks of final testing along with driver training before they come in to full use in the summer.
The buses are as efficient as electric equivalents, with refuelling taking less than 10 minutes. Water is the only emission from the vehicles which reduces carbon emissions and the new buses continues to contribute to the city’s commitment to tackling air pollution.
Councillor Jenny Laing, Aberdeen City Council co-leader, said: “Aberdeen is at the forefront of developing green technologies and our continued innovative commitment to hydrogen truly puts us on the global map.
“The new buses come with even better technology helping to tackle air pollution in the city and further makes Aberdeen an entrepreneurial and technological leader by pushing boundaries for hydrogen.
“We are really proud to be the world’s first city with hydrogen double-deckers and we look forward to seeing them on the city’s roads.”
The UK’s first hydrogen production and bus refuelling station was opened in Aberdeen in 2015, as part of a £19million green transport demonstration project.
David Phillips, First Aberdeen operations director, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Aberdeen City Council to deliver these state-of-the-art and ground-breaking new buses to the people of Aberdeen.
“We are in the process of adapting our depot to accommodate these environmentally friendly zero emission vehicles and are upskilling all our staff to accommodate this next generation of buses.
“It is a huge effort from all our staff to deliver this project, so we extremely proud to be a part of this project in helping the city to lead the way on the hydrogen journey.”
Paul Wheelhouse, Scotland’s energy minister, said: “We are currently undertaking a wide-ranging project to assess the potential for hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells for use in transport and heating across Scotland. Hydrogen could well play an important role in the energy transition that’s required in order to meet our 2045 net zero emissions target.”
The buses have been produced by Wrightbus based in Northern Ireland – and will operate alongside the existing fleet the city already boasts including a range of hydrogen and electric vans and cars.
