One of the energy sectors that are changed the most, due to the need of decreasing CO2 emission, is mobility. Poland is one of the leaders in producing and exporting electric buses in European Union with 707 buses roaming the streets of the country in 2022. The next natural step in mobility improvement is introducing hydrogen powered buses.
The Polish company PKN Orlen has recently opened first mobile hydrogen tanking station in Poland. The station was built in Cracow to fuel hydrogen powered public transport. Currently tested bus is Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen. Equipped in 70kW hydrogen fuel cell and 5 tanks of the complete capacity of 35 kg of hydrogen, the bus can drive up to 350 km without being refueled.
Other cities are not falling behind Cracow. Between 22nd and 23rd of June 2022, Nesobus, that was manufactured in Poland, was being tested in Gdynia. The same bus model was tested between 27th of June and 1st of July in Wrocław. In 2023 Solaris bus is going to take over Lublin.
Municipal Transport Authority in Lublin has just settled a tender to buy a new hydrogen bus. In Rybnik, there are plans to buy 20 hydrogen powered buses, that are going to start driving in the 2nd quarter of 2023. What is more, in the 1st quarter of 2023 new hydrogen tanking station is going to be built in that city.
However, that is not the only mobile hydrogen tanking station that is going to come into being in 2023. PKN Orlen’s plans for hydrogen technologies in Poland are extensive. The concern plans to build 2 more stations, one in Poznań and another one in Katowice, in the next year. More public stations, in Wałbrzych, Piła and Włocławek, are currently being negotiated. Moreover, company plans to build 10 hydrogen hubs until 2030 in Poland and abroad.
The development of hydrogen powered transport in Poland is rapid. Not long ago we had no hydrogen powered buses or any transport of that sort. Now, not only do we have them, but soon we will see hydrogen powered trains and maybe even cars on the roads.
Source: Łukasz Bera for Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. – Solaris Archive