DOE Unveils USD 2.5m in Grants for Airport Fuel Cell Vehicle Projects

Source SeeNews North America

April 27, 2012

(SeeNews North America) - Apr 27, 2012 - The US Department of Energy (DOE) said Wednesday it would provide as much as USD 2.5 million (EUR 1.9m) in 2012 grants for fuel cell electric vehicle projects for transporting passenger baggage at commercial airports in the US.

The department's idea is to finance projects that demonstrate how fuel cells could be used for airport ground support operations in order to lower energy costs, air pollution and petroleum consumption. Under real-world conditions, the applicants will have to demonstrate and test the performance and financial viability of using advanced fuel cell solutions for three years.

The projects will be 50% cost-shared. They will provide important data on the economics of fuel cell vehicles to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) Hydrogen Secure Data Center which will analyse the information.

This year, the DOE intends to support up to three projects, which are to fetch over USD 2.5 million of additional funds from the private sector and other sources.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.756)