CTTransit has gone outside Connecticut for the first time to find a fuel cell for its Hartford clean energy bus fleet.
The transit administrator partnered with Ballard Power Systems of Vancouver, Canada for 150-kilowatt fuel cell, as part of a $4.3 million project to bring a fourth clean energy bus coming to Hartford by 2015. The Federal Transit Administration provided a $3.6 million grant for the bus.
CTTransit already has three fuel cell buses in operation in Hartford, all powered by fuel cells made in South Windsor by UTC Power. UTC Power was sold in February and now is part of and called ClearEdge Power, headquartered in Oregon.
The ClearEdge fuel cells are no longer a viable option for CTTransit, said Phillip Fry, spokesman for the transit administrator.
The Connecticut-made fuel cells only fit in a bus manufactured by Van Hool, based in Belgium, and CTTransit must use American manufactured buses, Fry said. CTTransit was able to skirt the rules for its three current fuel cell buses because Van Hool was exempt from the requirements as part of a demonstrator project, but the manufacturer reached its maximum number of allowable sales under the project.
ClearEdge is still developing its strategy following the February purchase and doesn’t know if it will try to reconfigure its transportation fuel cells to fit in an American bus, said ClearEdge spokeswoman Jennifer Sager. The manufacturer still has a transportation division.
Connecticut’s other major fuel cell manufacturer, FuelCell Energy of Danbury, doesn’t have a transportation division.
