In its capital, Budapest, Hungary has started a pilot of the country’s first-ever hydrogen bus service. The pilot began on 11 February 2022 and makes use of a single bus that connects Budapest with the nearby suburb of Vecsés. The pilot runs for 3 weeks and ends in early March. As an additional incentive, residents are able to use the hydrogen bus service for free.

The Hungarian State Secretary for Climate, Energy Policy and the Development of the Circular Economy, Attila Steiner, places the pilot in the context of the need to reduce CO2 emissions, particularly in the transport sector, which accounts for around a fifth of such emissions in Hungary. The pilot aims to produce insights from the first practical experience of the daily use of hydrogen buses in the country in order to support their further deployment.

The pilot is part of a wider programme in the country to increase the use of hydrogen as an energy source. In June 2021, Hungary adopted a comprehensive National Hydrogen Strategy that aimed for the widespread adoption of hydrogen production and use in the country. The vision is to have 40 hydrogen refuelling points and 4,800 hydrogen-powered buses and trucks in use in the country by 2030. The strategy also underlined the importance of using hydrogen in other fossil-fuel dependent sectors, such as power plants, by producing 16,000 tonnes of zero carbon hydrogen and 20,000 tonnes of low-carbon hydrogen using 240 MW of electrolysis capacity.

Compared to fossil-fuelled vehicles, hydrogen is much less polluting. It has the potential to be effectively zero emission, if energy for its production originates from renewable sources.

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Article published first at TheMayor.eu on 10 February 2022.