Derry council to decarbonise fleet and switch to electric, hybrid and hydrogen by 2032

With increasing costs of fuel an internal team has been set up to look at energy and fuel use across the organisation and to identify both short, medium and long term measures that can be taken to mitigate these increased costs.

Members of the Environment and Regeneration Committee were informed that the process to move to greener technologies has already begun and that smaller vehicles and minivans would be replaced by electric and hybrid vehicles going forward.

A council officer explained: “Part of the challenge would be the infrastructure in terms of our depots which we will have to update and amend to support those types of vehicles and ensure that our staff are trained in servicing and maintaining those vehicles, so it is a huge challenge.

“By 2032 that will be the last date that petrol only and diesel vehicles will go on to the market and from that point on it will be hybrid electric or potentially hydrogen vehicles so we are working towards those dates.

“When it comes to a lot of our kit, our sweepers, our specialist type vehicles, it’s only now the industry is looking at alternative fuel sources and designing from new.

“There are a couple of vehicles that have been retrofitted but the industry is now rising to the challenge and bringing forward vehicles that are 100% electric, 100% hybrid, as opposed to retofits to existing vehicles.

“That process has begun and will roll out over the coming years but there are many challenges.”