City’s ‘green’ buses to need diesel heaters

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This article was published 05/03/2024 (578 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Transit’s first round of zero-emission buses will rely on green energy to get around, but use diesel heaters to keep passengers and batteries warm each winter.

The heaters will be placed on eight battery-electric buses, which are slated to begin arriving around June, said Erin Cooke, project manager for Winnipeg Transit’s transition to zero-emission buses.

While perhaps not a widely known practice, small diesel-powered heaters are commonly used to warm electric bus interiors and batteries in Canada and were included in an electric bus trial in Winnipeg that ended in 2018, said Cooke.

“The diesel auxiliary heater, without it, the range performance losses are (up to) 60 per cent in winter. So, it is needed to be able to continue operating these buses in extreme-cold temperatures in Canada,” she said.

The city has ordered eight hydrogen fuel cell battery-electric buses, which are slated to begin arriving around September or October. Since those models generate heat, they won’t need diesel heaters to supplement electric heat, said Cooke.

The diesel heaters will only start to kick in when the temperature falls below 4 C. The buses will rely on electric heat until that point. Cooke said this has always been part of the city’s plan for electric buses, to ensure the fleet could operate on even the coldest days. She stressed very little diesel is actually used.

“If you look at the total emission reduction compared to a diesel bus… you’re still looking at reductions of 90 per cent or higher on the battery electric buses,” said Cooke.

Meanwhile, the city is changing its hydrogen production model from a water electrolysis process to a cheaper methanol reformation process, which will require much less power to run. However, the hydrogen buses will produce more emissions as a result of that change. Cooke said the change was made because bids for the electrolysis contract came in far over budget.

“The pricing we got back on that came in nearly double (the up to $12 million) we had budgeted for the project, so it just wasn’t feasible,” said Cooke.

She stressed the hydrogen fuel cell buses will still create 60 per cent fewer emissions than standard diesel models.

Curt Hull, an environmental advocate, agreed Winnipeg Transit must account for winter weather as it transitions to greener vehicles.

“Transit’s got a real challenge to be able to charge the vehicles in depots overnight… For sure, the solution needs to be that the buses stay warm and they’re able to achieve the range (of travel) that’s required.”– Curt Hull

“Transit’s got a real challenge to be able to charge the vehicles in depots overnight… For sure, the solution needs to be that the buses stay warm and they’re able to achieve the range (of travel) that’s required. It’s not ideal that you’re still using diesel for the heat, but I dare say that you’re going to be using a fraction of (the amount needed) for powering a bus’s motion,” said Hull, project director for Climate Change Connection.

Hull said the city should seek ways to make the vehicles as green as possible over time but progress shouldn’t stop in the interim.

“Things like the source of the hydrogen, the source of the heat can be worked on later. You don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” he said.

The head of council’s public works committee said the inclusion of diesel heaters on battery-electric buses makes sense.

“If we didn’t have the heaters on the buses, we’d lose up to 60 per cent of the range in the winter, which is huge. Even with the diesel heater, the buses produce (up to) 98 per cent less tailpipe emissions (than a diesel bus),” said Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West).

Coun. Brian Mayes, the head of council’s water, waste and environment committee, said the diesel heaters appear to be a sensible short-term solution. However, he’d like to see that element of the plan referred to the city’s climate action and resilience committee to determine if other heating options can be explored in the future.

Mayes (St. Vital) said Transit’s key environmental goal should still be to entice more people to replace trips in personal vehicles with bus rides.

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“The zero-emission buses, certainly, it’s better than having buses that use diesel but, to me … It’s (still about) trying to get people on to transit that (is the) challenge,” he said.

In 2022, the city reached a $280-million funding deal with the provincial and federal governments to replace about 15 per cent of Transit’s diesel-powered fleet with zero-emission models. That was initially expected to allow Transit to buy about 100 environmentally friendly buses by 2027, though more recent reports noted rising prices could reduce the number.

In 2021, Winnipeg Transit hoped to replace its entire fleet with zero-emission buses by 2047.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.