TMB in Barcelona signed a contract that will see the first public use hydrogen plant in Spain

The facility, operated by Iberdrola, will enter service in November

Earlier this week, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona announced that it had signed a contract with multinational electric supply company Iberdrola for the creation of a renewable hydrogen-producing plant – the first of its type in the public sphere in Spain. Construction will soon begin in the Zona Franca area over a plot of 5000 square metres that had been leased to the Free Trade Zone Consortium of the Catalonian capital.

The hydrogen produced in the plant will be used to power the new fuel cell buses which will enter into TMB service sometime in 2022.

Eight fuel cell buses had already been purchased

The plant is part of the ambition that sees both the public transport operator and the electric utility company move into the sphere of renewable energy sources as their management sees this to be the zero-emissions future. The scale of the project is large enough to provide space for eventualities, such as not only recharging the Barcelona public buses but also other electric vehicles or industrial facilities that use this type of innovative technology.

As for the fuel cell buses that will operate thanks to the existence of such a plant, it was informed that the first eight of these had already been purchased and are expected to arrive in November of this year before entering into operation next year.

The hydrogen fuel consumption of said buses is said to be 160 kilos per day and the number of vehicles is expected to reach 60.

The leaders of TMB and Iberdrola expressed optimism that this initiative will turn Catalonia and Spain into benchmarks of the global renewable hydrogen economy.