Periodic Report Summary 4 - 3EMOTION (Environmentally Friendly, Efficient Electric Motion)
Project Context and Objectives:
Bridging the gap between demonstration and large scale deployment of Fuel Cell buses, is the projects major objective. After a significant reorganisation of the project and the demonstration
sites, the 3EMotion project will provide policymakers and financing institutions with the necessary arguments to invest in Fuel Cell Buses (FCB) as a cost effective strategy to accelerate the reduction of harmful local emissions while offering attractive co-modality options for commuters.
Within the project, cities in UK (London), the Netherlands (Rotterdam and Province of South Holland), France (Versailles and Pau) and Denmark (City of Aalborg) will showcase the technology
and demonstrate real life operation with hydrogen buses. In addition to the buses from Van Hool, buses from VDL and SAFRA Bus are operational in their respective sites, the latter were new bussuppliers to the project. Additionally the construction of new hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in Aalborg by Green Hydrogen, a new HRS supplier, has also add value to the project. This way, the consortium will meet its overall and initial objectives.
All the new sites have procured and ordered their buses and organised the HRS (new or upgraded) and are operational. Both Pau as well as Aalborg have constructed HRSs
with onsite electrolyses to fuel the bus fleet with renewable and green hydrogen. The buses in London and Rotterdam are in operation and gathering data, these were the only sites
remaining from the initial project proposal. All the projects' wave 2 buses have been build, delivered and are in operation in South Holland, Aalborg, Pau and Versailles. The same applies for the project partner B.E.green which operates their buses from SAFRA in Versailles.
The project therefore met the objective of having 27 operational buses and working HRSs. In the last reporting period, the project did suffer from the Covid-19 corona pandemic, but was able to keep momentum and is still operating the buses even in smaller service. The project also kept the momentum with the most important deliverables and milestones.
Project Results:
During this reporting period, all FCBs (29) have become operational in all sites (London, Rotterdam, Province of South Holland, Aalborg, Pau and Versailles) combined with the respective HRSs in the project. The eight (old) Wright buses of London were retired after a long trackrecord of operation, therefore 21 buses remained in the project running daily operation. Furthermore the project worked hard on the improvement of the FCB and HRS availability and operation. Nevertheless the project consortium encountered difficulties due to the Covid-19 Corona pandemic, which impacted the daily operation of the different operators, because of limited passengers and or adjustments / downscaling of the service-scedule.
The project also came more together after the switch of the project management and the informationsharing workshops among the partners. In these workshops the more experienced partners and operators shared information, lessons learned and experiences to the new sites Therefore they were able to use synergies between partners and gain momentum in the role out of the demonstration.
A new consortium amendment was started (CA#5) at the end of the period, to changes roles and obligations of one of the partners and to transfer budget from one to another partner.
Potential Impact:
At the end of the project, fuelcell bus fleets will have been deployed in five different European locations, (London - UK, Pau & Versailles - France, Rotterdam and Province of South Holland - NL, Aalborg - Denmark) Denmark was added as the last partnering city adding a new EU memberstate to the project, where FCBs will be deployed.
These 29 FCBs in the different sites, of which 8 London buses were driven throughout multiple projects and have been retired, will give a good picture on the innovations and technical improvements as well as the life-time of this technology in an operational context. The fleets of buses will have had sufficient time to operate and generate relevant data to make assessments in their respective regions all over Europe, also the addition of a fleet of 18 meter buses in Pau, will add interesting insights in the technology and also the different use in the city transport system.
Through the exchange of information about the experiences from daily FCB operations in these locations in Europe (Aalborg (DK), London (UK), Pau (FR), Rotterdam (NL), Versailles (FR)) decisions makers, transport authorities will be informed about:
the movement towards cost effective integration of FC Buses in local bus fleets
the enhancement of the technical availability of the buses
the common technical and safety specifications for Refueling Infrastructure are
the toolkit for the identification of a proper mix of incentives to support the market demand side
the evolution of fuel cell buses (from CHIC to 3Emotion)
List of Websites:
www.3emotion.eu
Bridging the gap between demonstration and large scale deployment of Fuel Cell buses, is the projects major objective. After a significant reorganisation of the project and the demonstration
sites, the 3EMotion project will provide policymakers and financing institutions with the necessary arguments to invest in Fuel Cell Buses (FCB) as a cost effective strategy to accelerate the reduction of harmful local emissions while offering attractive co-modality options for commuters.
Within the project, cities in UK (London), the Netherlands (Rotterdam and Province of South Holland), France (Versailles and Pau) and Denmark (City of Aalborg) will showcase the technology
and demonstrate real life operation with hydrogen buses. In addition to the buses from Van Hool, buses from VDL and SAFRA Bus are operational in their respective sites, the latter were new bussuppliers to the project. Additionally the construction of new hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in Aalborg by Green Hydrogen, a new HRS supplier, has also add value to the project. This way, the consortium will meet its overall and initial objectives.
All the new sites have procured and ordered their buses and organised the HRS (new or upgraded) and are operational. Both Pau as well as Aalborg have constructed HRSs
with onsite electrolyses to fuel the bus fleet with renewable and green hydrogen. The buses in London and Rotterdam are in operation and gathering data, these were the only sites
remaining from the initial project proposal. All the projects' wave 2 buses have been build, delivered and are in operation in South Holland, Aalborg, Pau and Versailles. The same applies for the project partner B.E.green which operates their buses from SAFRA in Versailles.
The project therefore met the objective of having 27 operational buses and working HRSs. In the last reporting period, the project did suffer from the Covid-19 corona pandemic, but was able to keep momentum and is still operating the buses even in smaller service. The project also kept the momentum with the most important deliverables and milestones.
Project Results:
During this reporting period, all FCBs (29) have become operational in all sites (London, Rotterdam, Province of South Holland, Aalborg, Pau and Versailles) combined with the respective HRSs in the project. The eight (old) Wright buses of London were retired after a long trackrecord of operation, therefore 21 buses remained in the project running daily operation. Furthermore the project worked hard on the improvement of the FCB and HRS availability and operation. Nevertheless the project consortium encountered difficulties due to the Covid-19 Corona pandemic, which impacted the daily operation of the different operators, because of limited passengers and or adjustments / downscaling of the service-scedule.
The project also came more together after the switch of the project management and the informationsharing workshops among the partners. In these workshops the more experienced partners and operators shared information, lessons learned and experiences to the new sites Therefore they were able to use synergies between partners and gain momentum in the role out of the demonstration.
A new consortium amendment was started (CA#5) at the end of the period, to changes roles and obligations of one of the partners and to transfer budget from one to another partner.
Potential Impact:
At the end of the project, fuelcell bus fleets will have been deployed in five different European locations, (London - UK, Pau & Versailles - France, Rotterdam and Province of South Holland - NL, Aalborg - Denmark) Denmark was added as the last partnering city adding a new EU memberstate to the project, where FCBs will be deployed.
These 29 FCBs in the different sites, of which 8 London buses were driven throughout multiple projects and have been retired, will give a good picture on the innovations and technical improvements as well as the life-time of this technology in an operational context. The fleets of buses will have had sufficient time to operate and generate relevant data to make assessments in their respective regions all over Europe, also the addition of a fleet of 18 meter buses in Pau, will add interesting insights in the technology and also the different use in the city transport system.
Through the exchange of information about the experiences from daily FCB operations in these locations in Europe (Aalborg (DK), London (UK), Pau (FR), Rotterdam (NL), Versailles (FR)) decisions makers, transport authorities will be informed about:
the movement towards cost effective integration of FC Buses in local bus fleets
the enhancement of the technical availability of the buses
the common technical and safety specifications for Refueling Infrastructure are
the toolkit for the identification of a proper mix of incentives to support the market demand side
the evolution of fuel cell buses (from CHIC to 3Emotion)
List of Websites:
www.3emotion.eu