(C) Ohio Capital Journal
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Ohio transit agency to switch to green hydrogen for fuel cell buses • Ohio Capital Journal [1]
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Date: 2025-02-19
One of the nation’s largest hydrogen-powered transit fleets is seeking to switch to a cleaner — and local — fuel source as part of a federally funded clean hydrogen hub.
The Stark Area Regional Transit Authority, or SARTA, provides about 5,000 daily rides to commuters in the Canton, Ohio, area. A decade after federal grants helped it purchase its first hydrogen fuel-cell buses, the authority now has 22 such vehicles, making it the country’s fourth-largest hydrogen-powered transit fleet.
The vehicles emit only water vapor and warm air as exhaust, reducing air pollution in the neighborhoods where they run. But producing and transporting hydrogen for the fuel cells can be a significant source of climate emissions, which is why SARTA is partnering with energy company Enbridge and the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, on a plan to make the fuel on-site with solar power.
“So it will be green,” said Kirt Conrad, SARTA’s CEO, referring to the use of renewable energy to power the production of hydrogen by splitting water.
Currently, the transit agency imports hydrogen — made from natural gas without carbon capture — by truck from Canada. Such “gray” hydrogen emits about 11 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of hydrogen produced. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs against Canada could also affect the cost and supply of hydrogen available to SARTA, although specific impacts are still unclear.
SARTA had already worked with Dominion Energy on a compressed natural gas fueling station before Dominion’s Ohio utility company was acquired by Enbridge. When the Biden administration announced its regional clean hydrogen hub program in 2023, SARTA and the company joined others in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to pitch the ARCH2 hub. The hub was among seven selected by the Department of Energy in late 2023 and was awarded up to $925 million in funding last summer.
The plan is to install roughly 1,000 solar panels on about 10 acres of recently acquired land next to SARTA’s existing hydrogen fueling facility, said Conrad. That would generate up to 1 megawatt of electricity, powering an electrolysis facility that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. Under the project’s current scope, the equipment would produce roughly 1 ton of hydrogen per day, enough to fuel 40 SARTA buses, Conrad added.
Details could change as the project progresses, according to Enbridge spokesperson Stephanie Moore. Enbridge would own the hydrogen production and storage equipment.
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https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/02/19/ohio-transit-agency-to-switch-to-green-hydrogen-for-fuel-cell-buses/
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