Recent articles from To have to about the future of hydrogen as a fuel lead me to wonder about the choice of catenary electrification of REM cars.
Wikipedia tells us that in 2002, a first mining locomotive of 3.6 tons and 17 kW was developed for the company Placer Dome and presented in Val-d’Or, and that, for 20 years, hydrogen fuel cells as well as hydrogen production equipment has been tested or routinely used by various countries. Around the world, projects to replace diesel-powered trains with hydrogen-powered trains abound.
In the impressive document entitled Canadian Hydrogen Strategy — Call to Action of December 2020, it is discovered that “Canadian companies play a key role in the value chain relating to hydrogen train applications. Hydrogenics, an Ontario-based company, supplied the fuel cells for the first trains […] entered service in Germany in 2018 and manufactured by French train manufacturer Alstom. »
However, it is precisely the Alstom company that was chosen to supply the REM cars, in particular because they come from a proven platform (Metropolis) already widely in service around the world.
But one can wonder why, taking advantage of our facility to manufacture green hydrogen, our governments and the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec did not insist on providing Quebec with a type of train that holds promise for the future.
Instead, we’ll have to endure the sight of those ugly poles and the catenaries they support! It would also be interesting to know their cost of installation and maintenance as well as their impact in terms of GHGs.
To see in video