Wrightbus wants to build a green hydrogen production plant

Wrightbus is not hiding and announces plans to build a green hydrogen production plant at its Ballymena site. Subject to planning approval, the new plant, built by Wrightbus in partnership with Hygen Energy, will initially produce enough clean energy to power 300 hydrogen buses a day in Northern Ireland. If all goes as planned, the site will become operational in summer 2024.

Wrightbus has been one of the most successful companies in the clean hydrogen revolution. In 2020, the company introduced the world’s first fleet of hydrogen-powered double-decker buses, which in November 2022 reached the incredible milestone of covering 1.75 million kilometers since first being put into service.

Jo Bamford, Chairman of Wrightbus, says: «Wrightbus is delighted to be working with Hygen on this hydrogen production project at our factory in Ballymena. One of our key objectives when we purchased Wrightbus in 2019 was to bring the first UK manufactured hydrogen double decker bus to market. We have done this, with our Hydroliner buses now moving passengers every day in a number of cities across the UK, including here in Belfast. Hydrogen is the best means of decarbonising many bus routes, but for this to happen bus operators need a reliable and voluminous supply of low cost low carbon hydrogen.  It is great to see a project that is being sized to enable future demand for hydrogen here in Northern Ireland to be met. This project will initially be able to produce enough hydrogen to run up to 300 buses, and has the potential to triple in scale as demand for hydrogen increases.  We hope it will set an example for how these projects will be designed and built.”