Thirty of Go
North East’s Volvo B9 double deck buses are to be retrofitted with hybrid
flywheel technology after north east councils worked together to win a slice of
Government money.
Newcastle and
Sunderland City Councils received £472,000 after putting together an award
winning bid to The Clean Vehicle Technology Fund on behalf of the North East
Combined Authority.
Go North East
is investing more than £700,000 in the project.
The Fund is
designed to pay part of the cost of modifications to public service vehicles that
will reduce by 25 per cent the amount of exhaust fumes emitted into the air in
our towns and cities.
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The vehicles (above & below) operate on the Cobalt Clipper and Fab 56 services |
Kirk Trewin,
chief engineer at Go North East, said: “The Go-Ahead Group has collaborated
with GKN Hybrid Power to develop this innovative technology. These hybrid
conversions will see an important reduction in nitrogen dioxide and CO2
emissions on some of the busiest bus corridors across Tyne and Wear and in to
Northumberland.”
Go North East
will fit the system to its modern ‘Cobalt Clipper’ and ‘Fab 56’ double deck
buses running between Newcastle, North Shields, and Blyth, and Newcastle,
Washington and Sunderland.
Leader of
Newcastle City Council, Cllr Nick Forbes, who has lead responsibility for transport
on the North East Combined Authority, welcomed the cleaner and greener buses.
Cllr Forbes
said: “This investment means the North
East leads the way on introducing greener vehicles onto our local roads.
“The new
technology will improve fuel efficiency while reducing exhaust emissions which
means less pollution in the atmosphere and cleaner air for everyone.
“This is an imaginative project which will bring real health benefits while supporting skilled jobs in environmental technologies and boosting economic growth.”
“This is an imaginative project which will bring real health benefits while supporting skilled jobs in environmental technologies and boosting economic growth.”
Leader of
Sunderland City Council, Councillor Paul Watson added: "Working together
with our local government and regional partners, we are continuing the
technological and infrastructure developments needed to reduce emissions and
improve our environment and air quality.
"This
latest funding acknowledges the progress being made in our region, and adds to
the significant investments we have all made to encouraging and creating a more
sustainable and effective transport system."
The
innovative Gyrodrive system is based on Formula One race technology developed
in the UK. It will help increase the efficiency of each bus by using less fuel
and thereby reducing carbon emissions. This same technology helped Audi’s R18
e-tron win at Le Mans in June this year.
The system uses a high speed flywheel made of
carbon fibre to store the energy generated by a bus as it slows down to stop.
It then uses the stored energy to power an electric motor which helps
accelerate the bus back up to speed, generating fuel savings of more than 20
per cent.
The 2014 Clean Vehicle Technology Fund award builds
on the success of last year’s Clean Bus Technology Fund which awarded over
£600,000 to fund the fitment of specialist catalyst to 40 buses to reduce
emissions.
The
effectiveness of the technologies will be monitored to provide a useful
learning tool for other local authorities also considering green vehicle
upgrades.
Work to fit
the equipment will start in March 2015.