Zero-emissions hydrogen-powered transportation is now a reality in France’s RhôneAlpes region, home to 80% of the country’s hydrogen-energy industry. Under the HyWay program, initiated in October 2014, an initial test fleet of 21 Renault Kangoo ZEH2 hybrid electric-hydrogen utility vehicles and three hydrogen filling stations have been rolled out in the cities of Grenoble and Lyon.
The HyWay program, coordinated by the Tenerrdis energy cluster, reached yet another milestone with the delivery of an initial fleet of 21 hybrid electric-hydrogen vehicles—the largest currently on the road in Europe—to Grenoble. Test users will be able to fill up on hydrogen at the Air Liquide filling station in Sassenage (near Grenoble) and at the Symbio FCell and French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) campuses in Grenoble. Another, larger-capacity hydrogen filling station is slated to open, also in Grenoble, at the GEG (the local gas and electric utility) campus. Ultimately, the station will be supplied by a green hydrogen production unit operated by Cofely Services and equipped with McPhy Energy electrolyzers.