The stone was laid on the site of the bus depot on May 9, with Fabrice Loher, President of Lorient Agglomération, marking the launch of construction work for the bus depot’s distribution site. The station will be the second in the Morbihan department, complementing the one installed by HRS on the Michelin site in Vannes in 2022.

For several years, Lorient Agglomération, Brittany’s third largest urban conglomeration, has been pursuing a bold energy transition policy to address the global challenges of limiting climate change.

Lorient Agglomération is aiming to accelerate the decarbonisation of the surrounding area and to reduce transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 78%. With the support of ADEME, the Brittany regional authority and Morbihan Energies, a project to roll out an ecosystem for the production and distribution of green energy in the region has accordingly been launched. By 2030, the entire thermal bus and boat-bus fleet is gradually to migrate to low-carbon alternative solutions, some of which will run on hydrogen.

To that end, HyGO, a company combining ENGIE Solutions and the public-private partnership 56 Energies, leader of the mobility limb of the project, has entrusted HRS with the supply and installation of a green hydrogen refuelling station due to be commissioned in the fall of 2023.

This station will supply vehicles in fast charge and the 19 hydrogen buses, soon to be deployed by Lorient Agglomération, simultaneously in slow charge, a first for a large capacity station in France.

Hassen Rachedi, HRS Founding Chairman and CEO, said:  “This first step towards installing a new HRS hydrogen refuelling station, only a few months after the order was placed, once again demonstrates our ability to respond quickly to large-scale hydrogen mobility needs. The simultaneous refuelling of 19 buses will constitute unique infrastructure in France, which we hope to replicate as soon as the opportunity arises.”

Read more on hydrogen refuelling stations in H2 View’s June issue