June 2008

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OAKLAND, CA/SOUTH WINDSOR, CT - California’s AC Transit transportation agency in Oakland and UTC Power, South Windsor, CT have announced what’s described as the largest ever order for fuel cell systems for public transport systems in the United States:

A minimum of eight 120 kW PureMotion 120® fuel cell systems with options for another 13 units to power AC Transit’s next generation hybrid-electric fuel cell buses, scheduled for delivery in 2009 and 2010. The fuel cells come with a warranty of up to 10,000 hours of operation, based on the fuel cells achieving certain defined performance milestones.

Previous UTC fuel cell systems with 4,000 hours warranty have consistently achieved 70-100% fuel economy in terms of per gallon/diesel equivalent than a control fleet of AC Transit diesel buses. In all, AC Transit’s three fuel cell buses have accumulated more than 85,000 miles and have carried about 165,000 passenger to date.

The early-May announcement at the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) annual bus conference in Austin, TX quotes AC Transit general manager Rick Hernandez as saying the experience with UTC Power and their fuel cell design has been “extraordinarily good. Not only have we realized significantly better fuel economy but their unique design operates at near-ambient pressure resulting in a very quiet vehicle.” UTC Power president Jan van Dokkum said, “UTC Power is extremely pleased to play a pivotal role in expanding the use of hybrid fuel cell buses for commercial service using our latest system.”

The new-generation buses will also be supplied by Belgium’s Van Hool bus manufacturer. They are expected to be lighter, have a lower center of gravity, and will feature a new energy storage system, probably nickel hydride batteries because lithium ion batteries are not yet commercially available to the agency, Jaimie Levin, AC Transit’s director of alternative fuels policy and marketing, told H&FCL by e-mail from Reykjavik, Iceland, where he was attending the international fuel cell bus conference.

Contacts: AC Transit, Jaimie Levin, 510/851-0625, Jlevin@actransit.org; UTC Power, Peter O’Connell, 860/727-2010, PeterOconnell@utcpower.