ARDS and North Down Council plans for green-friendly vehicles may stall after it turned out they would cost an extra £800,000.
Plans to start using a different fuel source in the council’s fleet next year hit a bump in the road when the price of synthetic diesel shot up by 40%.
And long-term plans to shift to electric vehicles have taken a knock after officials realised that Northern Ireland’s grid isn’t currently capable of providing the amount of power the council would need to charge up its fleet.
That’s all in an official report setting out ideas for shifting to more environmentally friendly vehicles.
Nationwide government targets state that emissions should be halved by 2030, and local authorities should go fully net-zero by 2050.
In Ards and North Down, bin lorries, council vans and recycling transportation make up around two-thirds of the council’s emissions, so cutting back on them would go a long way to making those targets.
The council had wanted to move from using regular diesel in its fleet to a more environmentally-friendly synthetic type made from treated vegetable oil.
Most diesel heavy-duty road vehicles can run on the synthetic kind without needing any modifications, so shifting over was an obvious choice.
But then the cost of synthetic diesel shot up by 40%, leaving it substantially more expensive than the regular variety.
The council would now have to scrape up an extra £800,000 from its coming budget if it is to start using synthetic diesel – a sum the cash-strapped local authority would struggle to spare.
Long-term plans were to buy new hydrogen-powered vehicles for heavy work as well as an electric fleet for lighter duties.
But Northern Ireland doesn’t have a substantial amount of green hydrogen, and would need significant spending from Stormont to set up a proper supply network.
And, say council officials, the electricity grid is ‘not currently capable of supplying the necessary power to meet the charging requirements’ of an electric fleet.
“Significant investment in [electric vehicle] infrastructure is needed, both on a regional and local level,” say officials.
Council staff are currently looking into whether depots in Bangor and Newtownards can be converted to electric vehicle charging points.
But officials warn that there’s ‘a degree of risk’ committing to both hydrogen and electric fleets because of the supply problems in Northern Ireland.
The report is due to be discussed at a council meeting this week.
Officials have asked councillors to sign off on them using the report to brainstorm a second report, this one setting out a potential roadmap towards a green fleet for Ards and North Down that can be considered by the council at a later date.
