Plans to replace diesel with hydrogen fuel on the railway have moved closer, as railway rolling stock owner Eversholt Rail has entered into an agreement to develop hydrogen supply options with H2 Green, the hydrogen network operator. They want the agreement to be a catalyst for rapid deployment of hydrogen rolling stock in the UK, with a focus on providing low-cost and reliable green hydrogen, produced by electrolysis of water using renewable energy sources.
The two companies will work together to determine the production and refuelling infrastructure required to support wide-scale deployment of hydrogen-powered rolling stock fleets.
Eversholt Rail has a rolling stock portfolio comprising over 3,200 passenger and freight vehicles.
It has an established relationship with rolling stock manufacturer Alstom, which developed and deployed the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell trains, the Coradia iLint, into passenger service in Lower Saxony, Germany, in 2018. H2 Green is developing a network of large-scale production hubs across the UK, and says its model will support the high-volume offtake that rail fleets require, which in turn will be a cornerstone for hydrogen production hubs, capable of servicing road vehicles as well. It has strategic land assets on the UK rail network and aims to drive down costs through economies of scale in the design process. It has an exclusive MoU with SGN Commercial Services (gas network operator for Scotland and SE England) to redevelop a host of its redundant assets for hydrogen production & storage. It is also working with Element 2, which plans to install and operate 2000 hydrogen fuel pumps by 2030, to build out customer-facing forecourts.