FTA funds 6 NAVC fuel cell bus projects

The Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium (NAVC), a public-private partnership working to promote advanced vehicle technologies, has signed contracts with the FTA for six new projects as part of the National Fuel Cell Bus Program. The contracts total more than $52 million. NAVC also was contracted by FTA to continue to staff the FTA National Fuel Cell Working Group and the International Fuel Cell Bus Committees for $900,000 for four years. The new projects under contract with NAVC are:

UTC Power (Conn.): UTC Power will develop four zero-emission fuel cell-powered hybrid electric buses using technology from UTC Power and test them with partner CTTRANSIT, which is already operating a transit bus equipped with a UTC Power fuel cell. The buses also will be tested with other transit agencies as the program evolves over four years.

GE Research (N.Y.): The four-year project includes building and demonstrating a transit bus that operates at lower cost than conventional fuel cell buses through the use of hybrid energy storage systems. A new advanced lithium ion battery from A-123 will be demonstrated as part of the program as well as a lightweight bus body and fuel cell technology.

New York Power Authority (N.Y.): The New York Power Authority (NYPA) will provide cost share, which includes a large hydrogen infrastructure program. Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) will procure and operate two fuel cell buses from New Flyer using technology from Ballard and ISE. This program will utilize renewable hydropower from the NYPA owned Niagara Power Project to generate hydrogen through electrolysis.

Nuvera (Mass.): The program will design a 40-foot, hydrogen-powered fuel cell bus and a natural gas-based hydrogen refueling station at the Logan International Airport. Partners include Massport, the commercial end user and transit authority; ISE Corporation, the vehicle integrator; Keyspan, the natural gas supplier; AVSG, the installer of the hydrogen refueling station; and MBTA, the transit authority. Nuvera is working with Fiat Powertrain to commercialize a fuel cell power module for use in bus and truck applications.