Van Hool makes follow-up order for Ballard fuel cell stacks
Ballard Power Systems has received a follow-up order from the Belgian bus manufacturer Van Hool. This involves the delivery of further fuel cell modules for ten H2 buses, which are to be used from 2022 as part of the JIVE 2 support program in Emmen, the Netherlands.
Ballard plans to deliver the ten fuel cell modules to Van Hool in 2021. The manufacturer will install them in hydrogen buses of the type A330, which are to be used from 2022 by Qbuzz, the responsible transport company in Emmen. In the meantime, Shell is building a hydrogen filling station and a 10 MW electrolysis plant on site for the on-site production of green hydrogen.
The A330 will be manufactured at Van Hool’s production facility in Koningshooikt, Belgium. According to the manufacturer, the twelve-meter-long model can travel between 350 and 400 kilometers and carry up to 74 passengers. Apart from fuel cell modules from Ballard Power Systems, the two-axle vehicle uses a 210-kW electric motor from Siemens. The buses’ hydrogen tanks can hold up to 38.2 kg of hydrogen.
The cooperation between Van Hool and Ballard now includes the supply or order of FC modules for more than 100 buses that are already in use or will be in use in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Norway, Belgium and Denmark. As recently as late July, Ballard received an order from the Belgian company for 20 hydrogen fuel cell modules for buses ordered last year by public transport operator Qbuzz for the Dutch provinces of Groningen and Drenthe.
“We are keen to deploy more Fuel Cell Electric Buses, powered by Ballard, in European cities,” explained Filip Van Hool, CEO of the eponymous company. He said the successful integration of Ballard products into its own buses, including the A330, has enabled progress in the commercialisation of fuel cells in public transport. “We expect continued market penetration and growth of zero-emission fuel cell buses throughout the EU,” Van Hool said. As of last July, the Belgian company had built 131 hydrogen buses, including 40 for the German cities of Cologne and Wuppertal and 21 for export to North America.
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