€5 million in funds secured for hydrogen refueling station & fuel cell vehicles in Denmark in late 2010
ADDITIONAL FUEL CELL VEHICLES & HYDROGEN STATION FOR HOLSTEBRO YEAR END 2010/2011
At year end 2010/2011 an additional hydrogen refueling station will open in the city of Holstebro in West Denmark. Also the local municipality will start using three hydrogen powered fuel cell cars.
The full financing on €5 million for R&D and demonstration of a 700 bar hydrogen refueling station and fuel cell vehicles in the city of Holstebro in West Denmark have now been secured. The named LINK2009 will act as the next step for hydrogen for transport in Denmark during 2010, thus contributing to the overall efforts of the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership of becoming one among the first regions in the world where hydrogen powered cars are market introduced. The station and vehicles are planned to commence operation around the year end 2010/2011.
The successful West Denmark Project and the recent Copenhagen Project have together secured additional 7 hydrogen stations and 15 fuel cell vehicles in operation in Denmark (out of a total of respectively 12 stations and 23 vehicles in Denmark, covering both road and non-road use).
The first ideas for the LINK2009 project was made during 2008 and first round of funding from the Danish Energy Agency program EUDP was secured in summer 2009. This was also the start of R&D of the 2nd generation fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen station, thus pushing the technology further from the 1st generation technologies that were developed and tested in the previous projects in Denmark.
In late 2009 the last round of funding for the demonstration of the 2nd generation technology was secured, also from the Danish EUDP program, totalling the public support to €1,9 million out of a total budget of €5 million, with the remainder provided by companies and vehicle end-users.
In the LINK2009 project a 700 bar hydrogen refueling station will be established in the city of Holstebro in West Denmark, by year end 2010/2011. Already two hydrogen stations are operated in the city for supply of hydrogen to various non-road fuel cell vehicles. The new 700 bar station will be owned and operated by the local energy company Vestforsyning and hydrogen will be supplied from the existing central electrolysis production plant that the company established in early 2008.
The Municipality of Holstebro will receive three fuel cell vehicles as part of the LINK2009 project and will use these for daily transportation purposes within the municipality departments. The Danish company H2 Logic will provide fuel cell systems for the vehicles and construct the 700 bar hydrogen station.
Besides being part of the Hydrogen Link Denmark network and contributing to the efforts of the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership, the LINK2009 is also a continuation of the public private partnership model that was introduced in previous hydrogen projects in Denmark.
The two main actors in the LINK2009 project, the Municipality of Holstebro and the energy company Vestforsyning, have joined forces in creating the local initiative Climate Circles.
The purpose of Climate Circle is to ensure, coordinate and expand cooperation within the business area of renewable energy in the greater Holstebro area in West Denmark.
The motivations for Climate Circle and partners to support and catalyze the LINK2009 project are clear: “If we are to move away from fossil fuels in the long term, we have to invest now in developing the alternative solutions. The planned opening of an additional hydrogen station in Holstebro and further fuel cell vehicles shows that the Holstebro area is on the forefront. We don’t expect to become the a centre of gravity for future fuel supply worldwide, instead the potential to produce fuels for transport locally whilst also ensuring business potentials on zero emission transport technologies are sufficient motivation for us” states manager of Climate Circle John Sohn.
