Home
Contact Us
Job Openings
Volunteer
Resource Center
Eco-Calendar
Action Alerts
Library
Fact Sheets
Env Ed Guide
Ecology Center
Store
Curbside
Recycling
Berkeley
Farmers' Markets
Terrain Magazine
Farm Fresh
Choice
Terrain for
Schools
SPONSORED PROJECTS:
Bay Area
Coalition for
Headwaters
(BACH)
Berkeley
Community
Gardening
Collaborative
Berkeley
Biodiesel
Cooperative
Bay Area Seed
Interchange
Library (BASIL)
Home • About Us • Archive • Subscribe • Advertise • Terrain for Schools
Search
Advanced Search
Auto Motives: An American Love Story
Simply Hydrogen
Elegant technology, but questions remain
by Justin Gerdes
"This is so weird." A few seconds pass. "This is beautiful, peaceful, and quiet. I'm glad
I volunteered to drive it." Just that quickly, Louie Rios, with 20 years' experience
driving diesel buses for AC Transit, becomes a fuel cell bus convert. After a five-
minute crash course on the state-of-the-art bus by ISE Corp. field project engineer
Jayson Cannon, Rios pulls away from the Berkeley Marina.
We're aboard a 30-foot, zero-emissions, hydrogen-fueled, fuel cell hybrid bus
manufactured by ISE Corp. and Thor Industries, powered by UTC Fuel Cells. The bus
exists due to a push by federal and state funding and California air quality
regulations. According to emissions reduction requirements approved by the California
Air Resources Board (CARB) in February 2000, 15 percent of new buses purchased in
California must be zero-emissions vehicles by 2015. Transit agencies across the state
began to explore ways to meet the target.
Perhaps the most ambitious demonstration project so far is led by AC Transit. Funded
by $17 million in state and federal grants, AC Transit will operate three fuel cell
hybrid buses, beginning in September 2005. The hydrogen-fueled buses are being
constructed through a unique collaboration: the chassis and bodies come from the
Belgian company Van Hool, the fuel cells from UTC, and the hybrid propulsion system
from ISE. To fuel the buses, AC T