FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Atlanta, GA, January 2020: The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE), a leading nonprofit consulting and project management firm, is working with the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) to deploy ten advanced design Fuel Cell Electric Buses (FCEBs) and commission the largest transit-operated hydrogen fueling station in the United States.

CTE organized and led the proposal team consisting of OCTA, the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District in Oakland, CA, and leading technology companies, to successfully win a $22.3 million grant from the California Air Resources Board to launch this project. An additional $1 million was awarded to CTE by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) to help finance OCTA’s fuel cell electric buses. CTE was also responsible for managing all aspects of the project, including the design and production of 10 buses, building the new high-capacity station, and upgrading the facilities at OCTA’s Santa Ana Bus Base to work safely on hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

A view of the new hydrogen fuel cell electric buses that OCTA unveiled on January 31st, 2020.

CTE’s experience in catalyzing and managing research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects to bridge the gap to the commercialization of zero-emission buses has enabled it to lead the project team of New Flyer, Ballard Power Systems, Transworld Associates, Fiedler Group, Trillium, and Air Products.

This groundbreaking hydrogen fueling station can support up to 50 FCEBs per day. The station is located at OCTA’s Santa Ana Bus Base, where it will initially fuel OCTA’s 10 New Flyer FCEBs. These new buses have a range in excess of 265 miles in the OCTA service area and feature an 85 kW fuel cell from Ballard Power Systems.

“This is one of the leading fuel cell electric bus deployments in North America and demonstrates the value of fuel cells in helping California meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals in the transportation sector,” stated Dan Raudebaugh, CTE’s Executive Director.

Dan Raudebaugh, CTE’s Executive Director, speaks at OCTA’s unveiling event on January 31st, 2020.

More than half of the funding for the project—$12.47 million—comes from California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy and improving public health and the environment – particularly in disadvantaged communities. The funding is the largest single grant to date from the California Air Resources Board to a transit agency. CARB has set a statewide mandate that public transit agencies transition to 100 percent zero-emission bus fleets by 2040.

ABOUT CTE

The Center for Transportation and the Environment is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to improve the health of our climate and communities by bringing people together to develop and commercialize clean, efficient, and sustainable transportation technologies. CTE has worked on over 200 projects and leveraged more than $570 million in local, state, federal, and private funding to move cutting edge technologies into the global energy and transportation marketplace. Learn more at www.cte.tv and follow us on Twitter @go_CTE

Lauren Justice/ CTE Development Director [email protected] / 404-245-8589