By GreenTech Lead Team : Ballard Power
Systems, a provider of clean energy fuel cell products, announced it has
shipped 3 of its 150-kilowatt FCvelocity-HD6 fuel cell power modules to
TuttoTrasporti (TUTTO) of Brazil in December 2011.
TUTTO, a Brazilian integrator of hybrid
transit buses, will be deploying the
modules in buses as part of a UNDP-EMTU (United Nations Development Programme –
Empresa Metropolitana de Transportes Urbanos) bus program.
“The UNDP-EMTU program is another
important step toward a tipping point in the global volume of fuel cell bus
orders. In combination with other recent announcements regarding growing fuel
cell bus activities in North America, Europe as well
as Brazil, 2012 will be a key year as we move toward fuel cell bus
commercialization,” said Larry Stapleton, vice president of sales,
Ballard.
EMTU is the major transportation service
of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city with a population of
11-million people. Under the program, United Nations funding is
being provided to EMTU. The new fuel cell-powered buses are expected to go into
service in 2012.
In Sao Paulo, 3-million tons of
greenhouse gases are emitted annually, 85 percent coming from vehicles.
UNDP-EMTU programme aims to reduce these greenhouse gas emissions.
Under Brazil’s National Plan on
Climate Change – a set of inter-ministerial programs designed to cut emissions
in the transportation, forestry, industrial and energy sectors – the government
has committed to significant use of zero-emission transit technology.
Initiatives will be implemented during the
lead-up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games being held in that
country, and beyond.
Ballard Power Systems recently
announced that
the 20-bus fleet operated by BC Transit in the Resort Municipality ofWhistler,
British Columbia and powered by Ballard FCvelocity-HD6 fuel cell modules
surpassed 1-million miles (1.6-million kilometers) of revenue service.