Hydrogen plans need to be driven by a bus

Ontario is grappling with the urgent need to decarbonize its transportation sector.

There exists an emerging provincial hydrogen strategy, yet its potential remains untapped. To make the plan effective, it needs a transportation deployment project, one that would see hydrogen used in heavy-duty fleet services such as transit buses and coach buses in an immediate demonstration program.

The answer is already here. The City of Mississauga needs new buses and has been trying to launch an initial program of 10 hydrogen fuel cell buses since 2017 with Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC).

In the same year, CUTRIC worked to secure parallel federal, provincial and municipal support for 18 battery electric buses and charging systems in Vancouver, Brampton and York Region. But at the time, we could not convince policymakers and politicians of the value of hydrogen as a supplementary, complementary and parallel zero emissions source of fuel that is locally produced and globally emergent.

By 2018, the craze over electrification had become shortsighted, focusing almost entirely on a one-solution approach with batteries. Batteries that have access to on-route charging systems can help address climate change with battery electric buses. But they won’t solve all problems for all transportation needs all the time.

As a complementary solution for long-range public transit decarbonization, the City of Mississauga has been trying to use green hydrogen produced in Markham. Now there is green hydrogen soon-to-beavailable in Niagara, too.

For seven years, these efforts have been ongoing — two governments, a half-dozen provincial ministers, and more than two dozen provincial members of parliament have been brought into the project discussion over the years. Still, no launch.

Yet, the time has never been better to launch a provincewide hydrogen fuel cell bus demonstration.

A robust hydrogen supply chain for transportation will not be built on individual passenger cars. Instead it will be built on buses and trucks.

Hydrogen buses are a necessary part of our zero-emission future, alongside pure battery and natural gas. A one-size-fitsall approach is a recipe for failure in public transit and heavyduty trucking, yet that’s exactly what an unfunded hydrogen transportation strategy in Ontario may result in unintentionally.

Mathematics-based predictions at CUTRIC have shown hydrogen buses will need to support 30 per cent or more of fleet needs in public transit over the long-term. With growing demand and growing volume, the price point of hydrogen can drop to parity with diesel in the foreseeable future.

If the hydrogen comes from made-in-ontario greenish electrons pushed through a local electrolyzer, the buses also generate near-zero emissions. They rely on locally produced energy and local jobs to move forward.

The federal government has been on standby for two years, ready to fund the Mississauga project through its Zero Emissions Public Transit Fund. Today, the generally strong relationship between Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives and the federal Liberals should be leveraged for the sake of a mission-critical project launch in this province.

Niagara is uniquely positioned to become not just a supplier to Ontario, but also a global player in the hydrogen market. The key to unlocking this potential lies in our immediate transportation deployments in fleets today.

The Government of Ontario could support all these needs and economic growth opportunities through Ontario Power Generation’s subsidiary Atura, which is committed to hydrogen production up to 2030. The hydrogen could be subsidized temporarily for public transit applications to support the immediate green shift as volumes ramp up by several publicly regulated utilities across the province.

A hydrogen strategy with public transit deployment at its core is a strategy informed by transportation reality.