The LINK2009 project will contribute to the overall efforts of the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership, to become one of the first regions in the world where hydrogen powered cars are introduced to the market. The station and vehicles are planned to commence operation around the end of 2010 or early 2011.
The successful West Denmark Project and the recent Copenhagen Project have together secured an additional seven hydrogen stations and 15 fuel cell vehicles in operation in Denmark. These make a total of 12 stations and 23 vehicles in Denmark, covering both road and non-road use.
The first ideas for the LINK2009 project were made during 2008, and the first round of funding from the Danish Energy Agency program EUDP was secured this summer. This was also the start of R&D of the second-generation fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen station, helping to push the technology on from the first-generation technologies that were developed and tested in the earlier projects in Denmark.
The latest, final round of funding for the demonstration of the second-generation technology has also been secured from the Danish EUDP program. The total public support is €1.9 million (US$2.8 million) in a total budget of €5 million, with the remainder provided by companies and vehicle end-users.
In the LINK2009 project a 700 bar hydrogen fueling station will be established in the city of Holstebro in West Denmark, by the end of 2010 or early 2011. Two hydrogen stations are already in operation in the city, supplying hydrogen to various non-road fuel cell vehicles.
The new 700 bar (10 000 psi) station will be owned and operated by the local energy company Vestforsyning, and hydrogen will be supplied from the existing central electrolysis production plant that the company established in early 2008.
The Municipality of Holstebro will receive three fuel cell vehicles as part of the LINK2009 project, and will use these for daily transportation purposes within its departments.
The Danish company H2 Logic will provide fuel cell systems for the vehicles and construct the 700 bar hydrogen station.
As well as being part of the Hydrogen Link Denmark network and contributing to the efforts of the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership, the LINK2009 project also continues the public-private partnership model that was introduced in previous hydrogen projects in Denmark.
The two main actors in the LINK2009 project, the Municipality of Holstebro and the energy company Vestforsyning, have joined forces to create the Climate Circle local initiative. The Climate Circle project aims to coordinate and expand cooperation within the renewable energy business in the greater Holstebro area in West Denmark.