Cavendish completes one of Italy's largest hydrogen stations ahead of Olympics
The Brunico station can dispense 800 kg of hydrogen daily for buses, trucks and cars, supporting transfers to Winter Olympics venues in the Dolomites.
Danish company Cavendish Hydrogen completed commissioning of a hydrogen refuelling station in Brunico, South Tyrol last September - described by the company as one of Italy's largest and its first installation in the country.
The station sits in the Val Pusteria, roughly 100 km northeast of Bolzano and about 50 km from Cortina d'Ampezzo, where several events for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics were held. The project was originally conceived to support zero-emission shuttle services between Olympic venues across the region, though it remained unclear at the time of the Games whether it had entered public service.
Built for Alperia Greenpower, the Alto Adige energy company, the station features 3 dispensers serving buses and trucks at 350 bar and cars at 700 bar, with a contractual minimum daily capacity of 800 kg of hydrogen. According to Cavendish, the primary use will be for fuel cell buses, though no fleet deployments have been confirmed.
South Tyrol has been building hydrogen infrastructure for over a decade. The region's first hydrogen station at Bolzano Süd has been operating since 2014, run by the Institute for Innovative Technologies (IIT) in partnership with the A22 Brenner motorway and Alperia. Fuel cell buses on SASA public transport routes there have covered more than 1.4 million kilometres since 2013. The Brunico station doubles the region's public hydrogen network, though both remain small by European standards.
The project received around €3.8 million in funding and includes a 2-year service and maintenance contract. At the time of Cavendish's September announcement, the site had passed its Site Acceptance Test - marking formal handover to the customer - but was not yet open to the public.
The country's national recovery plan (NRRP) allocates €830 million for hydrogen road transport and targets at least 40 refuelling stations by 2026, but progress has been uneven - most development is concentrated in the north, and Italy currently has fewer than 10 public stations. Cavendish itself has 2 more Italian stations under contract, expected to be operational by mid-2026.
Brunico is one station in a region that has been pushing hydrogen mobility longer than most of Italy, finished ahead of deadline and timed to coincide with one of the world's largest sporting events. With the Olympics now over, the question is whether the infrastructure finds a lasting role - or becomes another underused asset. The rest of the country, meanwhile, has some catching up to do.
