The Community of Madrid has launched the first hydrogen-powered bus in the region, which will serve urban line 4 that runs through Torrejón de Ardoz. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, David Pérez, has made the first trip aboard the vehicle powered by a fuel cell powered by this component, zero emissions, belonging to the Alsa service concession company. It has an integral and accessible ground floor with space for a person with reduced mobility in a wheelchair.
Unlike an electric propulsion vehicle that gets its power directly from a charging network, this vehicle does so through a completely clean chemical reaction based on hydrogen. It has more autonomy than the electric ones, at least 400 km, it refuels in approximately nine minutes and has five tanks, located on the roof, with a capacity of 37kg.
In addition, it has the advantage of having a completely silent motor and more ecological materials and does not use corrosive fluids, which is a great advantage over batteries. LED technology is present inside, outside and uses a combined air conditioning and heating system with convectors.
In terms of safety, the bus is equipped with acoustic warning systems for vehicles and fire detection and extinguishing systems, hill start assistance, automatic rain and light sensors, and 4 video surveillance cameras.
Pérez highlighted the commitment of the Community of Madrid to decarbonisation and clean energy to improve air quality. For this reason, the regional government is committed to promoting the use of less polluting fuels and zero emissions in the entire fleet of urban and interurban buses, in collaboration with the concessionaire companies that have been advancing in this line for years.
“The Modernization Plan for regular intercity public passenger transport concessions in the region already established in 2019 that at least 20% of the bus fleet should be environmentally sustainable, for which state-of-the-art vehicles have been continuously incorporated. generation in terms of emissions to replace more polluting models”, the councilor pointed out. In this sense, he recalled that “55% of the 4,100 urban and interurban buses that the Community of Madrid has are powered by clean energy”.
The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure has also visited the hydroline installed by the Alsa company in the Torrejón de Ardoz field, made up of some 18 blocks made up of 28 bottles of 50 liters each, which adds up to a total capacity of 25,200 liters of hydrogen in gaseous state.
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