North County Transit District Struggles to Afford the Price of Being Carbon Free

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but the North County Transit District has to truck it in from almost 100 miles away to fuel their zero-emission buses. 

The carbon free fuel costs so much, the transportation agency serving 340 square miles of northern San Diego County says it can only run a few hydrogen fuel cell buses at a time. Shawn Donaghy, the district’s CEO, is worried the cost of the hydrogen program might force the district to choose between cutting back bus services to buy fuel or halting their hydrogen zero-emission efforts altogether. 

“If we don’t start to see a relief (in) cost, and we have to continue to buy zero-emission buses, it will come at an expense to service,” Donaghy said. “We really don’t want that.” 

The transit district — which provides bus service for over 849,000 people a year — is trying to meet the state’s Innovative Clean Transit Regulation adopted in 2018 to address how on-road vehicles, like buses, account for more than half of emissions that drive global warming. Right now, transit agencies have two options: Run their vehicles on electricity and batteries or hydrogen fuel.  

Mary Dover, chief of staff for the district’s marketing and communications, said North County Transit District has both types. But they’re investing more in hydrogen because the fuel allows buses to travel longer distances before refueling. 

“The range is comparable to (compressed natural gas buses), so you’ll see those on our 101 route that goes all the way down the coast, and occasionally some of the more rural routes that have longer distances,” Dover said. 

Right now, the transit district buys hydrogen gas from a company located in Ontario, California, called Linde. It costs the district over $2,000 to fully fuel one hydrogen bus this way, Dover said. That’s 10 times more expensive than compressed natural gas and four times more expensive than diesel, the planet-warming fossil fuels buses traditionally use.   

The state mandate requires public transit agencies to figure out how to transition their buses off fossil fuels by 2040. In a rollout plan created in 2020, district officials said they plan to transition all their buses to zero emission by 2042.  

Dover said they’re on track to meet their goal, but maintaining the high cost of the hydrogen bus program threatens transit service. 

Without any state support for fuel costs, Dover said it would be harder for the district to keep a balanced budget. They’re looking at a deficit in 2028 where they may have to cut services. 

Right now, to combat high hydrogen costs, the district is building its own hydrogen fueling station so that they can truck in cheaper, liquified hydrogen and convert it to gas on site. Grants from the state California Energy Commission and federal dollars secured by Congressmember Mike Levin paid for most of the station’s $8 million price tag. 

But the transit district still has to find and pay for that liquified fuel. Turns out, according to Dover, once their fueling station is built, they’ll have to bring in hydrogen, via trucks that run on diesel, from even farther away – from a company called Air Liquide based in Las Vegas.  

But Carla Cunningham, a facility engineer and project manager of the district’s hydrogen fueling station, said that purchasing liquid hydrogen is the solution to reducing fuel costs, so the district can deploy more hydrogen buses. Dover said liquid hydrogen would lower the costs of fueling one bus from $2,220 to less than $500.  

The Transition to Zero-Emission: Why Hydrogen? 

North County Transit District reported that, before the state’s clean bus requirement, buses accounted for almost 7 percent of the district’s greenhouse gas emissions. The top two largest contributors were the district’s rail services that counted for over 65 percent of emissions.  

Transit districts had the option of pursuing hydrogen fuel cell or electric buses to meet the state requirement.  

Hydrogen buses have a range of 350 to 370 miles, according to the NCTD website. This is a little more than double the highest range of an electric bus, which is 150 miles, according to Dover.   

According to the district’s plan, electric buses were found fit to travel along short, urban routes like route 350 in Encinitas.  

However, electric buses were incapable of traveling the 50-mile distance required for route 101 that goes from Oceanside Transit Center to UTC Transit Center. An electric bus can only make two roundtrips before needing to be recharged.   

The district needed an alternative zero-emission technology that could handle the long route and make multiple roundtrips. Hydrogen buses showed that they could meet those milage demands.   

So, in 2023, NCTD got its first fleet of 12 hydrogen buses and in 2025 added 23 more to their fleet, according to Dover. The district didn’t have to pay for their buses. More state and federal dollars, including a $29 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration, helped purchase its fleet.  

Today, out of the transit district’s 190 buses, 35 run on hydrogen. Six others are electric.  

But Cunningham said the district can only put seven in service at a time because they don’t purchase enough expensive fuel to keep them all running.  

“We’ve been rotating (the hydrogen buses) in and out because we don’t have enough fuel to fill every bus every night,” the district’s CEO, Donaghy said. 

Donaghy said that if California officials are serious about continuing to require zero-emission technology, like hydrogen-powered buses, the cost of fuel has to come down and infrastructure for production and transportation must be built.  

“If we were to expand that program, there would have to be some guarantee for us by the state that we’re going to be able to control those fuel costs,” Donaghy said.  

What on Earth Is Hydrogen?

Hydrogen can be found in nearly everything on Earth — and beyond. It is an essential element for life to occur. The cells and DNA that make up humans, plants and animals could not exist without hydrogen.  

It makes up part of critical energies like natural gas, methane and propane, which power technology from cars to buses, airplanes and stoves.   

Even the sun and the stars that light up the sky are mostly made of hydrogen.  

Yet, despite its abundance, “pure hydrogen” or hydrogen that exists on its own is rare. Hydrogen gas can’t be found by drilling thousands of miles into Earth’s surface. People can’t mine hydrogen out of mountains, reservoirs or tunnels. And it’s impossible to send the element down a wire or powerline like electricity.  

The reason why it’s so difficult to find goes back to how the element earned the number one spot on the periodic table. Hydrogen is the lightest and smallest element in the universe.  

Its light weight makes it reactive and hard to keep on Earth. If hydrogen hasn’t already been combined with a different element, it will resist Earth’s gravitational pull and escape into space.  

However, NCTD’s hydrogen buses need pure hydrogen gas to function — so their hydrogen fuel has to be carefully produced and transported.   

Nguyen Minh, fuel cell technologies researcher at the University of California-San Diego, said that renewable hydrogen can be made through a process called electrolysis. This process, when powered by renewable energy like solar, wind or hydropower, is otherwise known as “clean” or “green” because it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases when extracting the element.   

“You feed in water and put in electricity,” Minh said. “Electricity is then used to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen.”  

However, this production method isn’t widespread, according to Minh. He said that hydrogen produced from natural gas is more common.  

Instead of using water and solar electricity, this method splits the elements within methane through extreme heat. Hydrogen will be extracted for fuel, but the extra carbon that is released adds more of this heat-trapping gas to the planet’s atmosphere and speeds up climate change. 

North County’s Hydrogen Isn’t Green 

Dover said that NCTD receives “gray” hydrogen from Linde, a company located in Ontario, California. Linde’s website says that gray hydrogen is generated from the process of steam reforming using natural gas and oil. Linde didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

Once the fueling station is operational, expected in early 2026, the district will switch to liquefied hydrogen from Air Liquide.  

Dover said that the $6 million California Energy Commission grant, alongside $1.72 million federal dollars secured by Congressmember Levin, will fund the construction of the station. However, the district does not receive funding for the costs of the liquid fuel. 

Since the North County Transit District is funding the construction of the station through a state grant, it will have to follow a California Air Resources Board requirement that the hydrogen it purchases has to be at least partially, 33 percent, “green” or clean.  

Liquified hydrogen is way cheaper than the gas version, according to Cunningham. It’s measured in kilograms. Liquid hydrogen costs about $10 to $13 a kilogram compared to the gas version, around $60 per kilogram. Once they make the switch, Dover said the savings will allow the district to put all 35 hydrogen buses into service.  

Liquified hydrogen is cheaper because more of the element can be transported at a time. The molecules are closer together and take up less space than in a gaseous state.   

Upon arrival, the liquid hydrogen would then be put into storage at NCTD’s facility. The station that is being built would have pumps and vaporizers that will convert the liquid to gas through pressurization and heat. The gas is dispensed much like a regular pump station.  

Minh said that the nation’s network for producing, storing and distributing hydrogen has a long way to go. The system isn’t widespread like natural gas pipelines that crisscross the country and have dedicated storage facilities and transport systems. 

Donaghy wants to see that change. He believes that the state should do more to develop hydrogen infrastructure, so that fuel becomes more affordable and accessible. 

“We want to support and we want to be a part of zero-emission projects,” Donaghy said. “But they have to be promoted by the state in a way that provides public transit agencies access to fuel and scalability. Right now, the infrastructure is the biggest piece.” 

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