Florida’s only hydrogen station has opened for the first US fleet of Ford shuttle buses powered by the alternative fuel, testing a technology that can lower greenhouse gases and eventually help wean the nation off foreign oil, governor Charlie Crist told a news agency.
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“Today, gas prices are high – really high – and it hurts,” Crist told the Associated Press (AP). “We need to make sure that our citizens in Florida and our country have the opportunity to have choice – whether its hydrogen or ethanol or whatever the fuel might be.”
Sharon Fields, transportation supervisor at the convention centre, told the news agency that eight Ford shuttle buses will ferry customers, tourists and employees at Orlando International Airport, the Orange County Convention Centre and other tourist spots throughout central Florida.
Florida got its first hydrogen-powered bus from Ford two years ago, but it took since then to build the station, officials reportedly said.
The state now has four of the 12-passenger vehicles from Ford and will receive four more of the Ford E-450 buses later, Sue Cischke, a Ford senior vice president, told AP. The buses normally cost $1meach, but the state is paying $250,000 each under a deal with Ford.
The commercial shuttle buses can travel 150 to 200 miles before refuelling, Cischke reportedly said. One of the hydrogen-fuelled buses releases about 1% of the carbon dioxide released by a Toyota Prius hybrid, she said.
The station is one of the first located in the southeast and allows for experts to assess the commercial feasibility of hydrogen as a transportation fuel, Crist told AP.
Power for the Ford E-450 shuttle buses is provided by an internal combustion engine that has been modified to run only on hydrogen fuel, the news agency noted.
Crist told AP that the Orlando station will be a hydrogen hub in central Florida. Another station will open in about two months in Oviedo and will fuel six Ford Focus cars to be driven by the state and Progress Energy.
Ford delivered five of the buses to Canada in 2006 and plans to deliver 30 throughout North America by the end of the year, the Associated Press said.
