Barcelona goes blue with e-hydrogen buses

In Spain, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) has chosen Iberdrola’s bid to supply hydrogen from renewable sources to power its fleet of city buses from 2021. The project’s goal is to take steps to provide urban transport with zero contaminating emissions.

To do this, the company will build and operate a hydrogen plant on a 5,000-square-metre plot on the Zona Franca industrial area, leased from the Consorcio de la Zona Franca, which the TMB buses equipped with this technology will use. There is also potential to introduce the same technology into any other vehicle fleets and industries on the industrial estate that opt for green hydrogen to meet their energy needs. The service contract has a duration of ten years.

The hydrogen plant in the Zona Franca will be the first public facility of its type in Spain, and it will distribute renewable hydrogen produced by electrolysis. This will foster the creation of a green hydrogen hub in one of Catalonia and Spain’s leading industrial areas. By winning this contract, Iberdrola has cemented its leadership in the field of sustainable urban mobility, where it is already a pioneer in electrical charging. It will now spearhead the supply of clean green hydrogen for use in the heavy transport industry.

At the same time, TMB has purchased eight buses with state-of-the-art hydrogen technology, which will be delivered to Barcelona in November 2021, with the intention of putting them into service in early 2022. The vehicles will be assigned to the company’s Operations Centre in the Zona Franca and will be supplied with vehicular hydrogen from the charging plant on the industrial estate, with an estimated consumption of 160 kg per day. This figure will increase from year to year as more buses with this technology join the fleet, until a total of 60 is reached.