Poland's eco-fund to support roll-out of hydrogen buses

Poland's National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management said it will extend a PLN-50-million (USD 11.44m/EUR 10.77m) preferential loan to PAK-PCE Polski Autobus Wodorowy for the construction of a hydrogen bus plant.

The unit of Polish utility group ZE PAK (WSE:ZEP) will build a plant for buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells in the Polish southwestern city of Swidnica. The facility is expected to roll out 100 buses a year, starting in July 2024 at the latest, the fund said on Friday.

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The prototype of the bus, named Nesobus, was presented in May by ZE PAK and Polish telecoms group Polsat, which has recently entered clean energy. Both entities are controlled by Polish billionaire Zygmunt Solorz.

NesoBus, created in Poland by local and foreign engineers, is a zero-emission city bus, Polsat noted. It has a motor driven by electricity generated on-the-fly from tanked hydrogen.

The construction of the plant, at the cost of PLN 72.7 million, is to be completed in June 2023, according to the contract with local builder Mostostal, ZE PAK said in June.

In October a ZE PAK project for the production and storage of green hydrogen was awarded a EUR-4.5-million (USD 4.78m) grant by the European Commission under the Innovation Fund.

(PLN 1 = USD 0.229/EUR 0.215)