California Fuel Cell Partnership Opens 1st Satellite
Hydrogen Fueling Station

(Richmond California) The California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) today commissioned its first "satellite" hydrogen fueling station in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing clean fuel for fuel cell electric vehicles. The station – an electrolyzer system using electricity and plain water to make hydrogen – represents another step forward for demonstrating alternatives for a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle infrastructure.

The fueling station is located at the AC Transit bus facility in Richmond, California. The equipment is manufactured and installed by Stuart Energy of Ontario, Canada. Both AC Transit and Stuart Energy are members of the CaFCP. The partnership also contributed resources and expertise to the project.

The primary purpose of the fueling station is to serve automotive companies affiliated with the CaFCP, who operate their fuel cell vehicles at the CaFCP headquarters in West Sacramento. The two locations are about 70 miles apart. The station is an important part of the partnership’s continuing effort to understand and develop technologies needed to bring the vehicles to market.

"This is a key achievement for the partnership this year – to be able to extend the test-drive range of our fuel cell vehicles beyond the Sacramento area, and to learn about potential fueling infrastructure technologies through real-world experience," said Don Huberts, CaFCP Chairman and CEO, Shell Hydrogen.

Jon Slangerup, President and CEO of Stuart Energy said, "This station is important for us and for the future of hydrogen fuel. Lack of a hydrogen fueling infrastructure is commonly cited as a challenge to the introduction of fuel cell vehicles. Stations such as this are directly addressing this challenge. Stuart Energy’s hydrogen fueling products are cost-effective, clean, convenient and available today. This station is a critical first step that could ultimately form the foundation of a hydrogen-fueling infrastructure for emission-free hydrogen-powered vehicles."

AC Transit General Manager Rick Fernandez said, "AC Transit begins an exciting new chapter in its 42-year history with the opening of this hydrogen fueling station at our Richmond Operating Division. We are proud to be members of the California Fuel Cell Partnership and to join cooperatively with Stuart Energy and other members of the Partnership in a determined effort to prove to the world the value of hydrogen and fuel cells."

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CaFCP News

The hydrogen station, with a storage capacity of 47 kilograms of hydrogen, is capable of supplying the daily fueling needs of a small fleet of vehicles at a fueling rate of one to two minutes per vehicle. Additional satellite stations for fuel cell vehicles are planned in the next few years throughout California.

Ceremonies featured a demonstration of quick and easy fueling of four fuel cell cars manufactured by DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Hyundai, and Toyota, before a crowd of several hundred people from the Richmond community, public officials and CaFCP.

The California Fuel Cell Partnership is a voluntary effort to advance a new vehicle technology that could move the world toward practical and affordable environmental solutions. The Partnership will demonstrate fuel cell-powered electric vehicles under real day-to-day driving conditions; will demonstrate the viability of an alternative fuel infrastructure technology; explore the path to commercialization; and increase public awareness of fuel cell electric vehicles. The Partnership expects to place about 60 fuel cell passenger cars and fuel cell buses on the road by 2003. For more information, visit www.fuelcellpartnership.org

For more information, please contact the California Fuel Cell Partnership at: 916-371-2870 or by email: info@cafcp.org.# # #

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