Orlen opens fifth hydrogen station in Poland to supply Piła bus fleet
Polish energy group Orlen has opened a hydrogen refuelling station in Piła, its fifth public site in Poland. The station will supply five municipal buses under a 219,000 kg hydrogen agreement, and forms part of an EU-funded programme to build 16 more stations across the country.
Polish energy group Orlen has opened a hydrogen refuelling station in Piła, its fifth public site in Poland and the second in the Wielkopolska region after Poznań.
The station will supply the city's municipal transport company, MZK Piła, which has purchased five hydrogen buses. Under the agreement, Orlen will provide 219,000 kg of hydrogen - enough to support several years of operation. The fuel is sourced from Orlen's own production facilities.
The site at ul. Powstańców Wielkopolskich 104 is equipped with dispensers at both 350 bar (for buses) and 700 bar (for passenger cars), with a daily capacity of 480 kg - sufficient to refuel around 10 buses and 30 cars. It operates 24 hours a day and is open to the public.
The station was built as part of Clean Cities - Hydrogen Mobility in Poland (Phase II), which received over €2 million from the EU's CEF Transport Blending Facility. Phase III of the programme will add a further 16 stations, supported by €62 million in EU funding awarded in 2024.
Orlen now operates public hydrogen stations in Poznań, Katowice, Wałbrzych, Włocławek and Piła, with sites under development in Gdynia, Płock, Bielsko-Biała and Gorzów Wielkopolski. The company also operates two stations in the Czech Republic, at Prague and Litvínov.
Poland's hydrogen bus fleet remains small but is growing. Cities including Poznań, Wrocław, Gdańsk and now Piła have added fuel cell buses to their fleets, though battery-electric buses dominate zero-emission purchases. Poland's Hydrogen Strategy targets 500 fuel cell buses by 2025 and 2,000 by 2030.
