Hydra Energy signs up second HaaS customer

Hydra Energy, a Canadian company operating as the first Hydrogen as a Service (HaaS) provider, has signed up its second heavy-duty fleet customer.

Veteran Express Secure Logistics is a veteran owned and operated transportation logistics service which specialises in moving high-risk and high-value goods in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The company has plans to extend operations into the United States.

“Alberta was a natural next step for our HaaS offering to connect from our Prince George hub firther east into Canada along trucking routes,” said Jessica Verhagen, CEO of Hydra Energy. “We applaud the Alberta government’s efforts to enable further demonstration of the use of hydrogen in heavy-duty transportation, recognising that transportation markets have the potential to rapidly scale their decarbonisation efforts with Hydra’s commercially-available technology once increased refuelling infrastructure is in place.”

Hydra’s proprietary hydrogen-diesel co-combustion injection system will be installed on Veteran Express trucks at no cost to the company. In exchange, the logistics provider will agree to a long-term, low-carbon fuel contract including fuelling infrastructure that can refill hydrogen tanks as quickly as diesel.

The contracted hydrogen will be priced at the forecast diesel equivalent, meaning there should be no increase in the fleet’s operating costs.

Using hydrogen is anticipated to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 67 tonnes per year, per truck, with no loss in fuel efficiency, range, power, torque or payload capacity.

Cole Fouillard, Veteran Express

“Retrofitting our trucks to now lessen our impact on the environment is a natural step in our continued commitment to the communities we serve and to the ESG goals we subscribe to,” said Cole Fouillard, CEO of Veteran Express. “The best part is Hydra’s hydrogen truck conversion cost us nothing to implement, don’t negatively impact truck performance or warranties and don’t require us to wait over a year for new trucks as they can retrofit existing ones.”

The first company to sign up to the service was Lodgewood Enterprises, a Canadian trucking company, which took delivery of its first converted truck in October last year.