5 days Ago
PORTLAND, Oregon — TriMet is making a big bet on hydrogen, drawing up plans to build a refueling hub as part of the transit agency's new 31-acre operations center on Northeast Columbia Boulevard. The hub will serve 14 hydrogen fuel cell electric buses to start with, funded by nearly $70 million in federal funding from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The big picture for TriMet is to operate a zero-emission bus fleet by 2040.
The first 14 fuel cell buses will run along the 82nd Ave Corridor starting in 2029. Committing to build the fueling station is the next step in TriMet's zero-emission plan, one which advocates say could spur new business development. "You need federal support, you need tax credits, you need mandates, there's a whole host of drivers that will support something like this because it's a big lift," said Jeremy Holland, who sits on the board of the Renewable Hydrogen Alliance .
"We're focused on supporting the development of renewable hydrogen, educating the community, engaging with various stakeholders to support essentially creating a hydrogen economy, and helping decarbonize a variety of end uses that we currently are using fossil fuels to support, with something that's going to reduce carbon footprint," Holland added. He likened TriMet's commitment with hydrogen to a big anchor tenant in a mall — if one sets up shop, others will likely follow. "We've supported other big lifts to get things going in other industries," he said.
"We're in that stage right now where we need kind of all hands on deck to move us in the right direction to decarbonize." "Green" hydrogen is about as low-carbon as it gets, Holland said. The technical name for it is "electrolytic" hydrogen, which ".
..uses renewable power and water to split that into hydrogen and oxygen.
The hydrogen is then our fuel source to power the buses that Tri-Met is looking to deploy here in a few years." Hydrogen fuel cell transportation has some advantages over current battery-electric vehicles, specifically greater range and faster refueling times that are more equivalent the gas station experience. But, TriMet already has 34 battery electric buses in its 681-bus fleet, and the agency said both types of zero-emission vehicles have a place in its future fleet.
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