The UK government has announced £77 million in funding for a zero-emission vehicle project that will include emergency services vehicles. The project seeks to develop a hydrogen fuel-cell range extender for specialist electric vehicles (EVs) such as fire engines and ambulances. A project focusing on battery-powered buses will also benefit from the scheme.
According to a report released by the International Energy Agency, buses and other large vehicles will be the next key area of development in the EV space. In 2022, nearly 66,000 electric buses and 60,000 medium and heavy-duty trucks were sold worldwide, representing about 4.5 per cent of all bus sales and 1.2 per cent of truck sales. The funding has been awarded through the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s (APC) Collaborative Research and Development programme. The government will provide £38.4 million of the investment, backed by a further £38.7 million from the automobile industry.
In April 2023, National Grid and TenneT unveiled plans for LionLink, an innovative cross-border direct current cable that will connect offshore wind between the UK and the Netherlands. The LionLink project is a multi-purpose or hybrid interconnector that will connect up to 2 GW of offshore wind capacity between the British and Dutch electricity systems.
