CAF and Iberdrola have signed a framework agreement to promote the use of green hydrogen in the railway and passenger transport sectors.
The partners have several goals including the promotion of solutions that can replace fossil-fuel powered trains without relying on the availability of overhead lines or having to make significant modifications.
Another is to improve the renewable hydrogen value chain with the highest safety, technology and competition standards in the railway and passenger transport sectors.
This will help encourage local companies to develop their technology and production capacity in order to drive sector transformation in Spain and compete internationally.
“CAF has long been a strong advocate of developing its own technologies for power electronics, energy storage and batteries and more recently hydrogen.
“We believe that this partnership agreement with Iberdrola is another step towards furthering this commitment and will contribute significantly to achieving the decarbonisation goals in the transport sector.”
This April tests will begin on a new hydrogen-powered train CAF developed at its Zaragoza plant as part of the FCH2RAIL project. The trains will be powered by ‘green hydrogen’ supplied Iberdrola’s Barcelona plant.
The prototype, based on a RENFE Civia series commuter train, will be fitted with a new electric generator system based on the hybridisation of hydrogen fuel cells and batteries.
This will combine with the vehicle’s existing traction system to showcase one of the sector’s first hydrogen cell dual energy mode systems.
