(Caixin) The southern city of Foshan is bringing new meaning to the term "light rail," with plans to build the world's first-ever commuter system powered by ultralight hydrogen gas.
The new line will use hydrogen fuel cell technology, whose only emission is water, and is being built by CRRC Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd., a unit of CRRC Corp. Ltd., the nation's leading maker of high-speed rail and associated equipment, the company said on Friday.
A demonstration model of the trains was first rolled out in the coastal city of Qingdao in 2015, but the Foshan project will mark the world's first deployment of a full-scale commercial system. The trains can travel at speeds of up to 70 kph.
"Hydrogen-powered rail is a new kind of electric train, different from other systems," the CRRC unit said. "It uses hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity, giving it not only more range but also eliminating the need for electrified track."
At a total length of 17.4 km, the new system will be built in two phases in Foshan's Gaoming district at a cost of about 760 million yuan ($109.9 million). Upon completion, it will feature 20 stations, with an average distance of 640 meters between stations. Construction on the first phase began at the end of last month and is expected to be complete by next year.
China has embarked on an aggressive campaign to promote new-energy transportation in a bid to clean up the country's polluted air and develop cutting-edge technologies that can be exported. Most efforts to date have focused on battery-powered electric cars, and hybrids that are powered by both batteries and traditional fossil fuels.
Municipal governments have been one of the biggest buyers of the technology since they have the resources to build necessary infrastructure like charging stations and maintenance facilities. Foshan is one of three of the largest cities in affluent Guangdong province that plans to upgrade its entire public-bus fleet to electric-powered vehicles by 2020 — part of an ambitious plan to make three-quarters of public buses in the province powered by clean energy over the next five years.
While cities have embraced the technology, enthusiasm has been lower among ordinary consumers due to the relative lack of infrastructure and unfamiliarity with the technology.
Source: Caixin by Yang Ge
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