The Beijing Public Transportation Corporation has announced that during the 2022 Winter Olympics, it will use 212 hydrogen buses.
This is part of a larger effort to keep the Olympics carbon neutral.
In order to keep potential risks to a minimum, 11,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs) will be deployed. They’ll be outfitted with real-time monitoring systems that will allow for data collection. Driving motors, instruments, and the hydrogen bus’s fuel cell system will be among the types of data collected. Within seconds, the data from real-time monitoring is shared. The 212 H2-powered buses will serve the public in the city after the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The use of H2-powered vehicles as part of the transportation and logistics for the Games was already announced in December. At the time, the spotlight was on Zhangjiakou, the co-hosting city, where 444 fuel cell buses were already in service, covering nine of the city’s routes. By the time that announcement was made, they had already carried 62 million passengers and traveled 21 million kilometers. Two H2 production plants and eight refueling stations can be found in Zhangjiakou. These ensure that the vehicles have enough fuel to operate consistently and reliably.
Hydrogen buses are an attractive option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The vehicles are estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from exhaust by 11.8 tons per 10,000 kilometers driven, based on models developed by us in Zhangjiakou. The vehicles were tested for safe operation in temperatures as low as 20°C, and the city’s institute of hydrogen and renewable energy performed additional safety checks.
China has set a lofty goal for the Beijing Olympics, which have sparked debate from a variety of perspectives, including environmental concerns, pandemic management, personal privacy, and human rights, among others. Its goal is to use enough renewable energy and carbon-free fuel to be able to declare the 2022 Winter Olympics as a carbon-neutral event.
