Ground Zero For US Fuel Cell Bus Initiative: Altoona

[nationalize the fed]

July 23rd, 2014 by Tina Casey Cleantechnica

Weren’t we just saying that like it or not, fuel cell EVs are here to stay? Well yes we did say that, and we said it before we even heard of this thing called the National Fuel Cell Bus Program. It’s an initiative of the Federal Transit Administration, which we never even heard of either, and it’s being launched in this city called Altoona, Pennsylvania, which we actually have heard of because (disclaimer alert) we are from Pennsylvania. Go, Pennsylvania!

Not to harp on a theme, but we will anyways: this is yet another example of how President Obama is using his executive authority to spread advanced energy technology around among the 50 states, regardless of the political leanings of their Governors. Did we say clean energy? No, we said advanced energy. That’s because there is an interesting twist at play in Pennsylvania but we’ll get to that in a minnit.



The latest fuel cell bus news crossed our radar in the form of a press release from Ballard Power Systems. The company is, naturally enough, very excited that it has been selected by the company New Flyer Industries to contribute its advanced fuel cell technology to the test launch of a fuel cell bus in Altoona.

This latest project continues a relationship between Ballard and New Flyer on fuel cell buses that goes back to 1991. The partnership is fresh off a successful demo test of a 20-strong fleet of fuel cell buses in Canada, which clocked a total of 2.5 million miles over a five-year span ending earlier in 2014...
more: http://cleantechnica.com/2014/07/23/ground-zero-us-fuel-cell-bus-initiative-altoona/