Central America's first hydrogen fuel cell bus hits the road

GUANACASTE, COSTA RICA – Just off a quiet road amid sparsely wooded fields are four rows of solar panels and a single wind turbine. The power they generate is sent a few feet away to a small-scale hydrogen production and storage plant, a cluster of structures and tanks surrounded by a chain-link fence. Next to that is a sleek digital dispenser with a gas-station style hose to deliver the compressed hydrogen to a vehicle.

Hydrogen fuel cell bus ‘Nyuti’ at the hydrogen dispenser. 

Specifically, it’s a boxy 35-passenger bus called “Nyuti” (which means “star” in the local Chorotega indigenous language) that sits in the adjacent parking lot. This is Central America’s first hydrogen transportation “ecosystem” and, seven years after the effort to introduce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Costa Rica began, Nyuti is taking to the road.

Read Robin Kazmier’s Yale Climate Connections story - “Central America's first hydrogen fuel cell bus hits the road.”

Old factory to make power for new

A Goulburn Valley businessman is working on a novel energy project which will use food waste to generate power for a new dairy factory.

The site of the new power plant.

Ian Bertram has received a Victorian Government grant towards the project based at the former Heinz factory at Girgarre which was once a cheese factory.

Australian Consolidated Milk is planning to build a new dairy factory on a green-field site next to the old facility this year and may be the power generator’s best customer.

Read the Country News story - “Old factory to make power for new.”