By DONNA BALANCIA
Montgomery County’s David F. Bone Equipment Maintenance and Transit Operations Center will be the first bus depot on the East Coast to feature green hydrogen production, and will be powered by solar and batteries. The project by EaaS provider AlphaStruxure is under construction and could be operational by first quarter of 2025.
Rockville’s Bone EMTOC will encompass an on-site electrolyzer, powered by solar and battery energy and represents the largest self-sustaining bus depot in the U.S. The depot will be powered by renewable energy and a microgrid, a small-scale energy distribution platform.
The 7-megawatt project will feature a more than 5+ MW solar array, electric bus chargers, battery energy storage, and existing backup generation, allowing it to operate indefinitely in “island mode.”
AlphaStruxure, an “Energy as a Service” microgrid solutions provider, and the Montgomery County, Maryland Equipment Maintenance and Transit Operation Center have announced the innovative project, featuring electric bus charging and on-site green hydrogen production powered by solar and battery energy storage.
This is one of three transit bus depots in Ride-On Montgomery’s network and the fifth-largest county-owned energy consumer.
It is projected that by 2035, the site will be able to accommodate more than 200 mixed-fleet vehicles.
The announcement of the project follows the launch of the Brookville Smart Energy Bus Depot, the county’s first constructed microgrid-powered bus depot, in October of last year. The project was also led by AlphaStruxure.