BAE Systems is helping cities achieve a zero-emission future with the electric propulsion systems, with electric fuel and accessory power systems available for trains, buses and marine vessels.
Working in electric propulsion
BAE Sytems created its first power management system for trains and now it is focusing on transit buses. Each year, BAE says those systems travel more than 330 million miles and help to transport more than 1.6 billion people.
But it is about more than moving people – it is about improving the environment, says BAE Systems. While buses make up a small number of vehicles, each one helps take passenger cars off the road, reducing traffic congestion and air pollution.
Even with reducing vehicle traffic, average buses can still give off emissions such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are emitted by their internal combustion systems. Electric or hybrid propulsion systems address that problem and they can also provide a better passenger experience by limiting vibration, noise and exhaust. According to BAE Systems, the operating costs are lower and the maintenance is easier.
BAE Systems says it has over 300 buses with its fully electric drive system on the road today. Those buses, powered by the battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric drive systems, have driven more than five million miles in transit service.
BAE Systems has also created an electric-hybrid propulsion system for a U.S. Coast Guard-approved aluminum passenger vessel. Red & White Fleet, a sightseeing cruise company in San Francisco, Calif., is using the vessel to reduce emissions in the San Francisco Bay. BAE Systems supplied its electric-hybrid system for its newest boat, Enhydra, which launched on its maiden voyage last year.
Striving towards a greener tomorrow
BAE Systems wants to work towards a world with zero emissions on land, in the water and in the air. According to the company, its products help save more than 20 million gallons of fuel and more than 200,000 tons of CO2 from entering the earth’s atmosphere, which is equivalent to taking 42,000 cars off the road or planting 4 million trees.
In 1998, the company fielded New York City’s first electric-hybrid transit bus fitted with the lead-acid batteries. Less than 10 years later, BAE Systems brought to market a lithium-ion based energy storage system.
Last year, BAE Systems says it became the first company in America to offer two energy storage systems for electric-hybrid transit bus fleets – a 32kWh lithium nickel manganese cobalt (Li-NMC) system and a 1kWh ultra capacitor system. Earlier this year, its battery systems on bus fleets reached 200 megawatt hours of storage – which is enough energy to power 6,666 homes.
