The hydrogen station at Toulouse airport in service from March 2022
Hydrogen at Toulouse-Blagnac airport is coming soon! Only, not yet in planes, but rather near the runways … The future hydrogen station within the airport platform “to be commissioned in March 2022“, informs the regional council of Occitanie to La Tribune. When the project was launched in September 2017, it was to be completed during the course of 2020 or at the latest by the end of the same year. .
“We have experienced delays linked in particular to the raw materials crisis, linked to the health crisis. Suppliers have experienced supply difficulties on compressors, ”explains the community.
Better known under the name of HyPort, this project is carried by an eponymous SAS, in which the Occitanie region is a 49% shareholder via the Regional Energy and Climate Agency (Arec), the remaining 51% going to Engie Cofely H2 France, a subsidiary of Engie. With a capital of five million, according to the latest figures announced, the objective of this structure is to develop both public and private hydrogen stations on airport platforms, such as Tarbes or Perpignan.
“With this project, our role is to promote this energy solution and install infrastructure where there is demand in the region. Thus, the company intends to carry out project engineering in the future and other airport platforms, for example, appear to accommodate such a device. Our goal is to offer a model that can be duplicated in the region and elsewhere“, declared in The gallery in 2019 Stéphane Arnoux, Development and Commercial Director of the Montpellier company Qair Premier Élément, General Manager of SAS Hyd’Occ and recently of Mr. Hydrogen in Occitanie.
Five buses ordered from Safra
As for the project at Toulouse-Blagnac airport, the concrete slab supposed to accommodate the infrastructure has just been delivered. “We are now awaiting delivery of the first two pieces of equipment, namely the substation and the airside distribution system.», Continues the regional authority.
It is built near gate C of the airport, which is close to the bus and freight area. But this future station will be installed on the city side to allow both public and private use. Concretely, the transporter Transdev has ordered five hydrogen buses from the Albigensian company Safra to launch this new service. Buses which must be delivered to Transdev by the end of 2021, according to the bus manufacturer which has just raised funds to industrialize the production of these alternative energy buses.
“Of the five buses, four will be for passenger services“, specifies the regional council of Occitanie. The operator Transdev will thus ensure the connection between the hall of the airport and the car parks P5 and P6, but also the company will forward the hydrogen buses to the travelers towards the jetty intended for the flights In addition, in addition to supplying potential airports with professional vehicles from the airport platform, the future HyPort hydrogen station must have public use although the supply of vehicles in this area is currently more than limited.
Rise of the regional sector
To carry out this project, the two shareholders of SAS HyPort have entrusted the work to thea Drôme nugget McPhy, which has been one of the pioneers of green hydrogen since 2008. The company has also recently announced an investment plan to beef up its means of production, in order to be able to produce 100 charging stations per year, against 20 currently.
In addition, the builder of the future hydrogen station is working hand in hand with H2TEAM, which is none other than the new name of Eveer’Hy’Pôle, an Albigensian service company which offers R&D services around projects to hydrogen. “We carried out the entire technical and economic study of the project between 2017 and 2018.“, describes Nicolas Daudou, the operations director of the structure.
Through this project which calls upon all the components of the regional hydrogen sector, Occitanie de l’Occitanie wishes its know-how in its leadership on hydrogen after having hosted the first national hydrogen council in Albi in last february. Not to mention the fact that the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, very recently visited Genvia in person to announce a support plan of 1.9 billion euros for the development of the French sector.