ULEMCo has been awarded a major fleet-wide contract by Aberdeen City Council (ACC) for its hydrogen dual-fuel utility vehicle conversions. The contract, initially for 35 vehicles, is a strong signal of commitment to a hydrogen-based strategy, and will see the Council operating the largest fleet of hydrogen vehicles in the UK.
ULEMCo has supplied heavy duty vehicles to ACC previously, and these have been running successfully on the roads for over a year. This new order includes further refuse collection vehicles and road sweepers, but also a wide variety of other utility trucks including tippers and tractors. It clearly demonstrates the flexibility of ULEMCo’s H2ICED® hydrogen dual-fuel technology in offering a practical route to saving up to 40% of CO2 emissions across whole fleets today.
The converted vehicles will create significant demand for the growing hydrogen hub in the region, supporting the Council’s commitment to deliver a thriving hydrogen economy in the area, and creating the demand for more highly skilled jobs.
Having benefited from investment by Edinburgh-based angel investment syndicate Equity Gap, and with Scotland’s national economic development agency Scottish Enterprise as a shareholder, ULEMCo sees Aberdeen and the rest of Scotland as key areas for investment for their conversion center roll-out program, and therefore extremely important to facilitating the rapid growth of hydrogen deployment, and delivering cleaner mobility in Scottish cities.
ACC is targeting the assets that are hard to decarbonize such as tractors and tippers, as well as converting further refuse trucks and sweepers in lieu of any commercially available ‘zero-emission’ alternatives, which are not expected for some time yet.
“We’re delighted to announce our first fleet-wide conversion contract with Aberdeen City Council, where, over the next 18 months, we shall be enabling 35 vehicles to run on hydrogen dual fuel, with more in planning”, said Amanda Lyne, Managing Director of ULEMCo. “The Council’s investment in our ‘here and now’ solution will help build significant demand for hydrogen, which in turn creates base load demand for scaled investment for infrastructure suppliers to provide more refueling etc.”
ACC Co-leader Councillor Ian Yuill also commented: “The conversion of vehicles within our fleet to dual-fuel hydrogen power sources is an important step in the Council’s journey to achieving our ambition to become carbon net zero by 2045. “Hydrogen has become a valued fuel source in the city’s transport sector, with vehicles including buses, cars and refuse lorries already using it daily on our streets, showcasing our position as a world leader in bringing this technology to market.”
Source: ULEMCo
