Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus Evaluation for California Transit Agencies
In February 2000, the California Air Resources Board approved regulations to reduce emissions from transit buses in California. Because of this ruling, several transit agencies in the state began developing programs to demonstrate zero-emission buses, specifically fuel cell buses.
DOE is conducting an evaluation of these buses in revenue service. The results will be extremely important in understanding the state of the technology and the work that still needs to be done. This information will also be helpful in estimating what the future technology and costs of operation may be based on the experiences of these operations and expected advances in the systems integration and developments.
Data collected from the bus demonstrations will be used to:
- Develop and document the procedures for evaluating fuel cell buses.
- Perform baseline performance testing of fuel cell buses and document the results.
- Evaluate the buses' performance, emissions, costs, and operating characteristics.
- Define and document infrastructure and facility modifications required to add hydrogen fueling and bus maintenance to the transit sites.
The evaluation involves three primary sites in California. The transit partners' responsibilities include procurement, operation, and maintenance of the buses; installation, operation, and maintenance of hydrogen fueling infrastructure; modification of facilities to allow for safe maintenance of the buses; and transmission of data to evaluation partners. The three sites are:
NREL is also evaluating fuel cell buses in other areas of the U.S. Current projects include:
Publications related to these evaluations will be posted below as the projects progress.
For more information on these DOE evaluations, contact Leslie Eudy at (303) 275-4412.
Related Publications
Some of the following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.
- Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District—Fuel Cell Buses: Preliminary Evaluation Results (PDF 1.37 MB), February 2007
- SunLine Transit Agency, Hydrogen-Powered Transit Buses: Preliminary Evaluation Results (PDF 1.38 MB), February 2007
- Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and San Mateo County Transit District—Fuel Cell Transit Buses: Evaluation Results (PDF 1.88 MB), November 2006
- SunLine Tests HHICE Bus in Desert Climate (PDF 395 KB), October 2006
- AC Transit Demos Three Prototype Fuel Cell Buses (PDF 540 KB), May 2006
- SunLine Expands Horizons with Fuel Cell Bus Demo (PDF 562 KB), May 2006
- VTA Prototype Fuel Cell Bus Evaluation: Interim Results (PDF 413 KB), May 2006
- Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and San Mateo County Transit District, Fuel Cell Transit Buses: Preliminary Evaluation Results (PDF 1.1 MB), March 2006
- Fuel Cell Bus Demonstration Projects: Fuel Cell Hybrid Bus Lands at Hickam AFB (PDF 464 KB), September 2004
- Fuel Cell Transit Bus Coordination and Evaluation Plan (PDF 470 KB), October 2003
- ThunderPower Bus Evaluation at SunLine Transit Agency (PDF 1.26 MB), November 2003
- SunLine Test Drives Hydrogen (ThunderPower) Bus (PDF 261 KB), August 2003
- Fuel Cells for the Transportation Industry: Developing a Credible Demonstration Program on the Path to Commercialization (PDF 115 KB)
- Hydrogen Fuel Cell Engines and Related Technologies Course Manual
- Final Report on the Federal Transit Administration, SunLine Transit Agency Cooperative Agreement (Ballard P4 Fuel Cell Bus)
- Part One (Project Summary) (PDF 1 MB)
- Part Two (Technical Project Reports) (PDF 1.8 MB)
- Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus Evaluation: Report for the Annual Hydrogen Program Review (PDF 681 KB), May 2001