Montgomery County recently broke ground on a new resiliency hub project and its second transit microgrid project. This one will be built at the Equipment Maintenance Transit Operations Center in the Derwood area, near Rockville.
Marc Elrich wrote the following in his weekly update to the community: “The center is critical to our Ride On bus system and will help eventually run zero-emission buses. Once completed, the center will become the nation’s largest renewable energy-powered bus depot. The facility’s microgrid will generate electricity for our buses, including clean hydrogen. It will also have on-site battery storage.
By 2035, the depot will house about 200 zero-emissions buses, most of which will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Buses fueled by hydrogen have a longer range and can refuel faster than battery-electric models.
We partnered with AlphaStruxure for this project. This video created by AlphaStruxure explains the County’s previous collaboration on the bus depot in Brookville. The Maryland Energy Administration has shown its support for this innovative approach to zero-emissions public transit. This project has received $9 million in Federal and State support for hydrogen production, $4.3 million for fuel cell buses and $1 million for workforce development.
This exciting project is an important part of our climate plan and sustainability efforts and will be a model for the entire country. These green energy microgrids reduce our dependence on traditional fuel and also can provide power independently of the grid during a power outage. You can read more about the project here. We have said that we want to be a model for the nation on how to tackle climate change, and this project is an important one for our efforts.”