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UTC Power a Big Winner in U.S. National Fuel Cell Bus Technology Competition
SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn., Oct. 16, 2006 – UTC Power, a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company, will play a significant role in the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) National Fuel Cell Bus Technology Development competitive grant program.
UTC Power and research partners will participate in three multimillion dollar zero-emission transit bus projects in California and Washington, D.C., as part of the FTA’s $49 million cost-shared program. FTA Administrator James Simpson announced the selections in Palm Springs, Calif., on Oct. 12.
“We’re delighted to be playing a major role in this strategically important development program,” said Jan van Dokkum, UTC Power president. “This initiative will enable us to continue to refine and enhance our technology in diverse operating conditions. We also welcome the opportunity to demonstrate and validate the superior performance of our PureMotion™ 120 fuel cell power system for buses in high-profile sites.”
With leadership from U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., Congress established the National Fuel Cell Bus Technology Development Program in 2005 to facilitate development of commercially viable fuel cell bus technology. The FTA goal is to have fuel cell buses represent 10 percent of new U.S. transit bus purchases in the year 2015.
As part of a $8.35 million Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) project awarded to the Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium (NAVC), UTC Power will provide its PureMotion™ 120 fuel cell power system for four zero-emission fuel cell hybrid electric buses that will be operated in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
In the California projects, UTC Power and partners on the Weststart/CALSTART team will design and demonstrate with SunLine Transit Agency a 40-foot fuel cell bus in a high-temperature, low-humidity desert climate. That project was granted $2.8 million by the FTA. In another California project, UTC Power will participate in accelerated life testing of fuel-cell powered buses already in service with AC Transit in the Oakland area as part of a $3.57 million program.
Both AC Transit and SunLine are current customers of UTC Power. The UTC Power PureMotion™ 120 fuel cell power plant is installed in four buses at these agencies and enables the vehicles to achieve more than double the fuel economy of standard diesel-powered buses, as well as to operate quietly and emit nothing but water vapor.
UTC Power has been supplying fuel cell bus power plants since 1998 for programs in Washington, D.C., California, Spain and Italy and recently announced orders for Connecticut and Belgium.
United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford, Conn., provides high-technology products and services to the building and aerospace industries. Its UTC Power unit includes UTC Fuel Cells and is a full-service provider of environmentally advanced power solutions. With more than 40 years of experience, UTC Power is a world leader in developing and producing fuel cells for onsite power, transportation, space and defense applications, and a developer of innovative combined cooling, heating and power applications in the distributed energy market. |
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