Low-emission truck trials launch at Port of Prince Rupert

Innovate BC is leading an Integrated Marketplace project to add new

Prince Rupert.

This project is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support

sustainability in the province’s transportation sector.

The HDZEV project will see four new trucks, two hydrogen-powered, one

battery-electric, and one hydrogen-diesel co-combustion, utilised on existing

operational routes. These operations will provide data to better understand the

range, reliability, and potential best use case for the vehicles.

Innovate BC is using the Integrated Marketplace to boost innovation in

British Columbia by connecting strategic buyers with B.C.-based solution

providers to implement, scale up, and export B.C. technology solutions. The

Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) is the testbed partner for the project.

The project received $2.45 million from the Government of British Columbia,

$3 million from the Government of Canada, and $500,000 from PRPA. This funding

will be used to purchase zero and low-emission vehicles, as well as to establish

fuelling, charging, and maintenance infrastructure, including electric vehicle

chargers and local green hydrogen production.

Other project partners include Velocity Truck Centres, which will support

the purchase and maintenance of the hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen-diesel

co-combustion and battery-electric class eight heavy-duty trucks.

Gat Leedm Logistics will operate the trucks, powered partly by Hydra

Energy’s hydrogen fuel. NuPort Robotics will install hardware and manage data

collection and analytics.

Testing will assess performance, technical capability, and feasibility,

running until the end of 2026.

“The Integrated Marketplace acts as a platform for partners like Prince

Rupert Port Authority, which are key contributors to British Columbia’s economic

growth, to de-risk the adoption of new technologies while supporting the

decarbonization and innovation goals of their organizations and the province,”

said Peter Cowan, President and CEO of Innovate BC.

“We are proud to lead this project and look forward to seeing its outcomes

and generated data inform the greater adoption of zero emission vehicles across

more industrial sectors here in B.C.”

“This partnership between governments, industry and B.C. businesses will

help accelerate the Port of Prince Rupert’s continued progress toward

decarbonizing port operations and to enable greater competitiveness and

sustainability for Canadian supply chains,” said Shaun Stevenson, President

& CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

“The utilisation of zero and low-emission vehicles is a key component of

the Prince Rupert Port Authority’s strategy for reducing port-related carbon

emissions by a further 30 per cent by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by

2050.”

Late last year, the Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) commenced

construction on the Ridley Island Export Logistics Project (RIELP).

More recently, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) put the first two

electrically powered trucks into operation at its in-house freight forwarder

Container-Transport-Dienst GmbH (CTD).