Zero-Emission Fuel Cell Electric Bus Service Growing in Orange County, California

January 9th, 2018 by Fiedler Group

Since 1991, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has been serving the residents and commuters throughout the 34 cities and unincorporated areas of Orange County. OCTA’s has been committed to environmental sustainability and currently over 88% of the buses run on clean natural gas (LNG or CNG). To provide Orange County residents with greener, less polluting transportation alternatives, OCTA is building a sustainable transportation future that includes testing next-generation technologies and fuels such as this Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Bus.

OCTA, in partnership with the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE), has received grant funds for a two-year demonstration project funded by the Federal Transit Administration under the National Fuel Cell Bus Program.  One Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Bus is being tested out of the OCTA Santa Ana facility. The 40-ft American Fuel Cell Bus was built on an ElDorado National Axess chassis with BAE Systems HybriDrive® propulsion and power management system, and a Ballard Power Systems FCveloCity® fuel cell module that provides primary power. The bus was manufactured 38 miles away from OCTA at ElDorado National’s facility in Riverside, California. In order to support and maintain the fuel cell bus, two maintenance bays at the facility have been modified to service the new fuel cell bus.

The Santa Ana facility is a central hub for the OCTA bus fleet, located at 4301 West MacArthur Boulevard, Santa Ana, CA 92704. Fiedler Group provided the engineering, design and permitting services to complete the evaluation of the existing facility and prepared the construction documents for the garage modifications. The building modification construction work was completed by Clean Energy Fuels.