Polish municipalities push for hydrogen

In Poland, 21 municipalities have sent a joint letter to the state government calling for high subsidies for hydrogen. The municipalities that have already concluded contracts for hydrogen buses had apparently failed to include realistic costs for hydrogen in their calculations.

The letter is addressed to Polish Minister of Climate and Environment Paulina Hennig-Kloska, who the communities hope will be able to top up subsidies for hydrogen. Specifically, the letter demands a special mechanism to support centres with hydrogen-powered buses. According to the initiators, such a solution would have a positive impact on the environment, public health, economic development and energy independence.

Included in the list of communities are Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Łódź, Poznan, Gdansk, Szczecin, Lublin, Rybnik, Świdnik, Konin, Tychów, Katowice, Bielsko-Biała, Rzeszów, Wejherowo, Mławy, Żor and Płock.

The communities which invested in a hydrogen bus fleet are having trouble affording them or are operating them on expensive grey hydrogen. The ones that haven’t received them are very nervous about operating costs.

As the publication CleanTechnica calculates, the “price of a kilogram of hydrogen is currently US$16.50, while the same amount of diesel oil costs $1.18. The difference in price over the year is as much as $655,000.”

While the move to acquire hydrogen buses without considering infrastructure and fuel may not be the wisest, this may end up benefitting the ‘Hytruck’ project, which aims to set up a transnational network of hydrogen refuelling stations for freight transport in the Baltic Sea region.

cleantechnica.com, wydarzenia.interia.pl (in Polish)