Can FCEVs change the game? Road tour stop in London 5 October

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Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse, Dennis Hayter, Intelligent Energy, and Bert De Colvenar from FCH JU.
Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse, Dennis Hayter, Intelligent Energy, and Bert De Colvenar from FCH JU.

Are FCEVs the better cars or would official privileges (e.g. using bus lanes) be required to turn them to game changers?

On the morning of 5 October, about 50 people interested in FCEVs were invited to exchange their thoughts and commonly evaluate the necessary next steps for market introduction of FCEVs in the UK. This VIP seminar took place in the ‘London’s Living Room’ on 9th floor of London’s City Hall. Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse who is responsible for promoting London businesses, jobs apprenticeships and economic growth grasped the opportunity of the European Hydrogen Road Tour making a stop in London to invite leading regional stakeholders of emerging FCEV technology representatives.

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The VIP seminar took place in "London’s Living Room" on 9th floor of London’s City Hall – here the view from the balcony.
The VIP seminar took place in "London’s Living Room" on 9th floor of London’s City Hall – here the view from the balcony.

Kit Malthouse and Dennis Hayter from Intelligent Energy (who is also Chair of the UKHFCA) and representing the London Hydrogen Partnership reported on the needs and the achievements on the pathway to introduce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. As part of the FCH JU funded project HyTEC, 5 FCEV cabs have been employed for several months now in London. These were used as shuttles during the Olympic and Paraolympic games in summer 2012 and celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rupert Murdoch were passengers. Not only did they appreciate this experience, but – maybe just as important – the taxi drivers enjoyed driving these cabs all day long. Having less vibration and noise for an hour or two (London traffic…) is much enjoyed by the passengers, but taxi drivers are the ones spending their entire working day usually exposed to these disturbances. Especially in London, taxi drivers are key multipliers to demonstrate how smooth and quiet FCEVs are. If more FCEV cabs will be employed, it might be reasonable to locate HRS close to where taxi drivers live or for other reasons frequently pass by. What really tops this advantage is the decision of the London authorities to make all London cabs CO2 free by 2020.

Today’s emphasis was on marketing tactics and regional focus to support the roll out of FCEVs. These were the key conclusions:

Improved market approach:

  • If you have a convincing product, the “Apple”-strategy can be extremely successful:
  • Let’s give everyone a FCEV to play with /drive it for half an hour. They won’t want to give it back. H2mS: This is the reason for our VIP and public test drives along the tour. Even though we have demonstrated seven FCEVs for now, we are working on a FCEV for everyone. Promised! (‘here today – everywhere tomorrow’).
  • Change from “green”-message to “better”-message. To the broad public, “green” sounds like “making things environmentally friendly but at a cost to comfort, i.e. just inconvenient”. So let’s not do FC technology ‘to’ them, but let’s do it ‘with and for’ them. Especially, as the driving experience in FCEVs actually is more comfortable than in conventional cars. This should be the message for selling it to the public.
  • Although everyone agrees that the driving experience is better, due to the infrastructure situation it will take some years until the overall mobility experience is comparable to conventional gasoline cars. Until then, it needs non-monetarian incentives. E.g. by opening up bus lanes for FCEVs or other measures that make the weekend longer.

Regional focus for roll out:

  • In the UK, London needs to be the catalyst for H2 mobility. As of today, 3 hydrogen stations are operational in the London area, another one is located in Swindon along the M4 corridor towards Wales.
  • Yet, London can never be a hydrogen city on its own, it will be part of a larger network.
  • How is UK different? UK is an island, on one hand ‘driving on the other side of the road’ and with the effect that people can only drive until reaching another coastline. In the rest of Europe people are more likely to drive greater distances, e.g. making a trip from Denmark to Italy. It was therefore felt that an infrastructure build-up could be easier to achieve with vehicle being ‘less dependent on neighboring countries also developing a hydrogen refueling infrastructure’.

The lively panel discussion resulted in other enchanting statements of the participants from London, the FCH JU and industry:

  • One of the next milestones to tackle: “Every pizza in London shall be delivered with a hydrogen vehicle.”
  • One of the reasons to use hydrogen instead of crude oil products: You don’t get a hydrogen spill in the sea.
  • This country just loves technology and innovation. So let’s sell these FCEVs to them. Should be a rather simple challenge.
  • Electric charging points for BEVs are quite a challenge in central London. Most people have to park on the streets. We have an alcohol problem in town. In combination, it can be envisioned that it were great fun for drunken people to walk around and unplug all the cars.

The discussion also addressed other issues such as the use of hydrogen for large scale energy storage (from fluctuating wind energy) in underground salt storage caverns, a technology demonstrated for hydrogen as chemical storage in Teesside, the only such location in Europe. This additional scope has apparently been well understood by major actors. A related issue, raised by industry, is the development of decentral storage schemes, with residential energy generation by CHP fuel cells and use as transport fuels, at the same time offering load management options. This would specifically applicable to new development projects also in London, such as in the Stratford quarters.

In discussing the ambition why fuel cells and hydrogen were to be used in UK transport strong arguments were raised by several speakers in overwhelming agreement, i.e.

  1. fossil fuels can be taken out of the earth only once. Also, they can also be spent only once. It was felt that better applications do exist instead of simply burning them, such as production of plastics or pharmaceuticals.
  2. 200 billion € are spent by Europe on fossil fuels each year. Using that money for value creation within Europe should definitely be the preferred and sustainable option
  3. Finally, competitiveness of industry is becoming an increasingly important issue for Europe, re-industrialization a general topic of interest.

 

Bert De Colvenaer, Director of FCH JU, painted a generic road map for cities when considering to embrace fuel cells and hydrogen for transport. Before becoming a demonstration site, the following questions need to be answered positively:

  • Are approval/admission/certification procedures/regulations in place?
  • The first ‘commercial’ fuel cell electric vehicles (claim independent of individual automobile manufacturers) are posed to arrive by 2015+ and they will need to find customers in the ten thousands. Is the city/municipality prepared to take up these vehicles in significant numbers?
  • Is the trend of re-urbanisation visible in this region/municipality?

Bert De Colvenaer was also confident that the current FCH JU under FP7 will have a second life within the coming Horizons 2020 program, even though the budget may not grow extensively. Seen from a European perspective his impression was that the UK H2 Mobility initiative is very relevant, as it tries to solve the chicken-egg problem by involving industry (automobile manufacturers, suppliers and infrastructure providers) as well as the public sector simultaneously, much like the German H2 Mobility initiative.

Another suggestion was welcomed by supporting nods on all sides; the investment needs to get involved and here London plays of course a very central role. Actually, only two representatives from the investment sector participated are in the room, whereas it would have been supportive in the early preparation for commercialization if half the guest had been from that sector. A strong suggestion therefore was to organize investor meetings specifically addressing this group in the near future, using the backing from the automobile industry.

Finally, the safety of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen as a fuel was addressed as major hurdle through poor public perception. Though the experts are already convinced, even believing that hydrogen is a safer option than most of the liquid fuels based on safety records, the public has to be educated. As a potential formula 1 racing class with FCEVs was mentioned as one of different highly visible options in the public.

Presentations

Hydrogen in London - Dennis Hayter, Chair UKHFCA & VPIntelligent Energy

Fuel Cells & H2: Towards Commercial Deployment - Bert de Colvenaer, Executive Director, FCH JU

Ride&Drive in London

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The London Public Ride & Drive – close to London Eye (Consert Hall Approach).
The London Public Ride & Drive – close to London Eye (Consert Hall Approach).

Besides the semminar, there was an opportunity for the public to test drive the FCEVs in London. Here are some pictures from that event.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]


Cardiff and Bristol events

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A "fresh test drive" in Cardiff and an early meeting of fuel cell vehicles on road and river in Bristol

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The First Minister of Wales inspected the cars. Here demonstrated by Guto Owen from Ynni Glan and Ulrich Bünger, H2moves.
The First Minister of Wales inspected the cars. Here demonstrated by Guto Owen from Ynni Glan and Ulrich Bünger, H2moves.

The "UK leg" of the H2moves Scandinavia European Hydrogen Road Tour kicked off in Cardiff, the capital of Wales on the 3rd of October. Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of Wales greeted the congregation with a hearty welcome after he had thoroughly inspected the seven fuel cell vehicles in front of Wales Millennium Centre, the home of the conference. He communicated his positive view of the fuel cell technology to not only clear the air in Cardiff and the rest of Wales, but also to foster additional value creation in the local automobile industry, employing 18,000 in Cardiff and vicinity.

Professor Garel Rhys, a veteran of UK and international automobile industry, eloquently pointed at the new view necessary to accelerate the impact fuel cell vehicles could have for Wales, i.e. by having a closer look at the used car markets and how hybrid vehicles were introduced into the market.

The FCH JU representative charted out the tools to apply for European funds and FCH JU’s strong interest in the European regions by partnering with HyER, the Hydrogen and Electric Regions Initiative. A last call in January 2013 will be open as a new opportunity to also support new demonstration activities e.g. in Wales.

Graham Cooley of ITM in his presentation put specific weight on the issue of economic synergies by using hydrogen as transport fuel and e.g. by using it in power-to-gas schemes as energy storage medium at large scale to support the electricity sector in solving its challenges to integrate fluctuating renewable energies into UK’s electricity grid.

Jon Maddy from the University of Glamorgan gave a presentation on the University’s Hydrogen Centre near Swansea and its specialised role in the research and development of the biological production of hydrogen. He also explained the University’s role in co-ordinating Welsh R&D activities and their partnerships with other UK institutions.

Willie Hall from Johnson Matthey introduced the "Down to Zero" Transport Procurement Compact which is a collaborative project between leading UK companies, organisations and Government to stimulate markets for low-carbon or zero carbon goods. The members of the Compact could be a key early market for FCEVs.

In the consecutive panel discussion, the regional representatives flagged their strong interest to introduce delivery vans and taxis as they do specifically operate in inner cities and as captive vehicles are typically refuelled by fleet refuelling stations, hence at high utilization.

The automobile industry representatives unanimously communicated their commercialization message starting with 2015. As (a) the economic aspect is a much more important issue in the delivery van market and (b) the car and delivery van sectors are typically separate units within the companies the automobile industry representatives dampened too much excitement that this specific sector will kick-off sooner than the ordinary car sector. Automobile industry has studied the markets and has come to the conclusion that in order to produce of several ten thousand units as soon as possible to reach the economic mass production threshold, large sedan cars will be in focus during the transition period.

The public was offered to testdrive the seven fuel cell vehicles, starting in front of Wales Millennium Centre, a fresh breeze and intermittent heavy rainshowers accompanying the event.

A further positive feature of the day was a visit by a group of enthusiastic schoolchildren (ages 14 & 15) from Ysgol Plasmawr (a school in Cardiff) to support their knowledge and understanding of science, technology and green motoring.

The event attracted Welsh press and TV interest, with reports on English and Welsh language news bulletins. A TV production company also filmed the event as part of a documentary on fuel cells which they are preparing.

Bristol

After leaving Cardiff to Bristol the same evening, the watches went off early for the EU Road Tour team the next morning. A testdrive was organised for a small group of invited guests of a breakfast seminar. The event started at 7:15am and was well attended despite the very early start. Next to a presentation of the H2mS project and Road Tour, the Cabinet Member from the local Bristol City Council with responsibilities for the environment, Councillor Neil Harrison, welcomed the EU Road Tour team and reported on the interest of Bristol to become a node in the hydrogen corridor from Swansea to London.

A first project, then presented by Jas Singh as project coordinator, showed the demonstration of a small hydrogen fuel cell operated passenger ferry, to showcase Bristol’s history as marine technology center willing to prepare for new industry applications in this field. As Bristol is home of BAE and as such is the center of the UK defense and aircraft industry, other markets for fuel cells could also develop in this field.

Emma Guthrie rounded up that picture and presented Air Product’s commitment to develop a hydrogen production and refueling infrastructure in the UK, starting along this highly visible corridor. Until now several fuelling stations exist starting in Wales and ending in London with the new fuelling stations at Millbrooks Proving Grounds and at Heathrow Airport to supply the five London Taxis.

Presentations Cardiff

The H2 Moves Project - Dr Ulrich Bünger, Senior Scientist, LBST

Hydrogen as a Transport Fuel -  Dr Graham Cooley, CEO, ITM Power

Hydrogen in Wales - Jon Maddy, Hydrogen Centre, University of Glamorgan

Towards Zero Carbon Transport, a procurement approach - Willie Hall, Projects Director, Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells & Member, Zero Carbon Transport Compact

Cardiff Event Video (in Welsh)

Presentations Bristol

London Hydrogen Bus/Taxi Pilots - Emma Guthrie, Business Development Manager, Air Products

Bristol Hydrogen Ferry and Local Hydrogen - Jas Singh, Auriga Energy Ltd[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]


The Swindon event on 4 October

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Curiosity of fuel cell craftsmen at Johnson Matthey and automobile industry commitment at Honda

After the breakfast workshop in Bristol we visited two further fully rewarding fuel cell industry centered events in Swindon, along the hydrogen corridor from Swansea to London.

The first stop was a short but intense one at Johnson Matthey, where in full sunshine three out of the seven fuel cell vehicles (Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai) lined up to be checked out in detail by the 130 or so employees. Even the reception personnel left their job to have a close at the look at the vehicles for which Johnson Matthey has been producing membrane electrode assemblies for many years. Reading from the excited faces of the staff, the hands-on exercise with some limited test driving, due to the time constraints that day, was very well accepted and a full success.

The outside part of the meeting followed a short introduction by Johnson Matthey’s fuel cell  activity CEO Jack Frost, welcoming the H2moves Scandinavia Road Tour delegation and the project coordinator Ulrich Bünger of Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik, who briefly introduced the congregation into the EU Road Tour and the positive Scandinavian hydrogen project experience. Also Richard Bruce, Director of OLEV (Office for Low Emission Vehicles in the UK Government) and Chair of the national UK H2 Mobility scheme welcomed the guests and reflected on understanding the evidence that the support provided by the UK government to the UK fuel cell and hydrogen industry is a full success paying back UK industry contribution to fuel cell vehicles as commercial products soon to enter World markets.

The UK H2 Mobility initiative had its meeting at the Johnson Matthey facility the same day and joined in on the test drives.
The UK H2 Mobility initiative had its meeting at the Johnson Matthey facility the same day and joined in on the test drives.
It was a warm and an exciting welcome when the H2mS delegation landed with the fuel cell vehicles in the middle of a curious crowd of fuel cell industry family members. It was even more exciting as the UK H2 Mobility initiative, preparing the commercial roll out of a UK hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, had its meeting at the Johnson Matthey facility that day and joined the testdrives and fuel cell vehicle “parking lot inspection”.

After this one hour excursion the delegation of three vehicles joined the other four fuel cell cars which had already proceeded to the Honda factory in Swindon for filming purposes, only a few miles from Johnson Matthey down the hydrogen corridor to London. At the BOC-operated refuelling station all cars where refuelled, the cars were test driven extensively under close observation and with participation of the press and a lunch seminar was organised.

Presentations comprised one by the UK Government-funded Technology Strategy Board, by Forward Swindon (a regional industry association), and by the H2moves Scandinavia project culminated in a lively VIP panel discussion which highlighted numerous strong messages both from policymakers and industry.

The regional representatives pointed out the strong momentum for technical innovation, i.e. the role of the area as UK’s “silicon valley’, which could render it relevant for the further implementation of fuel cells and hydrogen. A clear questionmark was attached to the future role of oil industry in the topic, instead many new opportunities, such as injection of hydrogen to the natural gas grid were pointed out. It was suggested to develop and "keep project plans ready" for the very moment of relevant calls for funding. In connection with this, the FCH JU representative also pointed at a new funding opportunity with a call coming up in January 2013 as combining European and national funds had turned out as specifically valuable for the H2moves Scandinavia project.

Industry clearly answered the question on the chicken and egg dilemma (cars or infrastructure first?) that both need to be developed in parallel. Japan, the U.S. and Europe were pointed out as early commercial markets, and here specifically in Germany, in the UK (London) and Switzerland. One manufacturer specifically mentioned its responsibility to provide 1,000 fuel cell vehicles until 2015 to foster fuelling station utilization in a period when few other fuel cell vehicles are available at large scale.

However, hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engines were only seen as ‘proto-chicken’ by the large-scale manufacturers as they unanimously believed that (a) a game change in efficiency is required, (b) fuel cells can be developed to competitive levels in short time (no bridge technology required until 2015) and (c) hydrogen internal combustion engines are posed to have principal technical disadvantages which could pose an economic threat to industry (e.g. the reliability typically suffers from water in engine oil and high engine pressures).

Industry jointly communicated that specifically the achievability of competitive cost levels is what makes them believe that a hydrogen based energy system can be reached in due time.

See a video from the event in Swindon![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]


Fuelling the future from Swindon

The UK’s first public-access hydrogen refuelling station was host to seven fuel-cell cars on the 4th October, as they filled up at Swindon on the UK leg of the H2 Moves European Hydrogen Road Tour.

swindonThe station, operated by industrial gases and clean energy business BOC, is the only refuelling stop in the UK for the vehicles: they also made an initial fuelling stop on their way to Cardiff. Midway along the M4, the Swindon station was the obvious choice to make sure that the cars – two Hondas, two Mercedes, two Hyundai and one Toyota – had sufficient fuel for the whole of the journey.

The European Hydrogen Road Tour is part of a programme involving the European Commission and European industry stakeholders. The project aims to increase customer acceptance for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and to prepare the market for hydrogen fuel cell technology and associated refuelling infrastructure.

Today’s event also provided guests with the opportunity to take a look ‘under the bonnet’, drive a fuel-cell vehicle and see for themselves the latest developments in automotive technology. Honda’s car manufacturing plant, where the refuelling station is located, hosted a seminar to promote the benefits of hydrogen as the most environmentally responsible fuel of the future, as well as generate interest and awareness of the need to develop a hydrogen refuelling infrastructure throughout the UK.

Speakers included Richard Kemp Harper, Lead Technologist for Energy and Transport at the Technology Strategy Board. The TSB has helped to fund the second phase of the Swindon project. Bill Fisher from Swindon Commercial Services Ltd, one of the local commercial customers piloting the use of hydrogen fuel in their fleet of vans, also spoke about the opportunities this zero-emission fuel offers.

The Swindon Hydrogen Refuelling Station is the result of a joint public-private partnership between Honda, economic development company Forward Swindon and BOC, a member of The Linde Group. Refuelling infrastructure is a key technology required to ‘complete the circle’ for hydrogen transport. The state-of-the-art facility shows what is available today. It can be replicated across the UK – and indeed the technology has already been installed by The Linde Group at over 80 locations around the world.

Nathan Palmer, BOC’s Director of Bulk and Packaged Gases, stressed the need to expand the refuelling infrastructure. “Businesses and individuals will not buy hydrogen vehicles unless they know there are enough places to fill up. Refuelling stations, like this one in Swindon, are vital if we are to switch over to a low-carbon transport system. The development of fuel-cell vehicles by the major manufacturers must be matched by investment in the infrastructure needed to service them.”

Thomas Brachmann of Honda R&D Europe remarked, “Honda believes fuel cell electric vehicles are a key mobility solution, providing a practical, environmentally-clean and near-silent answer to transport requirements. The European Hydrogen Road Tour offers a great opportunity to give the public, media and government officials a chance to experience and better understand this impressive zero emission technology for themselves.”

Ian Piper, CEO of Forward Swindon, noted: “Hydrogen transport offers significant environmental benefits to our towns and countryside. That is why Forward Swindon is delighted to be supporting this innovative green technology, and Swindon is proud to host this part of the Road Tour”.


Road Tour stop at Klimamobility in Bolzano

The Bolzano event sequence comprised three major activities
  • a specific H2moves Scandinavia session on 19 September, prepared and facilitated by our friends from the Institute for Innovative Technologies (IIT)
  • participation in the Klimamobility Fair on 20 September
  • participation of four fuel cell cars provided by H2moves Scandinavia in the Ecomobility electric vehicle rally on 22 September

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The Hyundai ix35 FCEV performed well on the mountain roads.
The Hyundai ix35 FCEV performed well on the mountain roads.

The H2mS specific event boasted both a VIP test drive with all four vehicle types (Mercedes Benz F-CELL, Hyundai ix35 FCEV, Honda FCX Clarity and Toyota FCV-adv), which were heavily utilised both by our VIP guests as well as students. The major activity however were the presentations disseminating messages of South Tyrol’s political and industrial commitment together with H2moves Scandinavia’s vehicle and infrastructure demonstration achievements in Scandinavia.

Key messages were contributed by South Tyrol’s president Luis Durnwalder, the Mayor of the City of Bolzano and the General Manager and Chief Engineer of the A22 Brenner Autobahn operating company. Backed by a presentation by IIT on the motivation for urgent action to make South Tyrol’s mobility more sustainable. With the Brenner Autobahn being the major source of emissions (local pollutants, GHG-emissions and noise), the politicians and industry described a picture in which hydrogen operated fuel cell vehicles could become a major component of a sustainable everyday mobility, providing high quality individual transport for the region. 29 million tourists every year use the Brenner Autobahn on their way across the Alps, either to stay in South Tyrol, a major tourist area, or continuing further south into Italy and back.

The plan is to establish a sequence of hydrogen fuelling stations to connect central Europe, from Germany via Innsbruck, to northern Italy. In addition, it had recently been decided to acquire five fuel cell buses from Evobus to be operated on the roads of Bolzano. Apparently, the bus provider had impressed the region by paying specific attention to pass an incline test in rather challenging mountainous environment.

Politics has promised to support this activity, either by funding the market introduction or by creating the relevant accompanying measures (preferential treatment of electric vehicles in otherwise restricted inner city traffic).

H2moves Scandinavia then reported from its positive learnings from using fuel cells and related refuelling infrastructure in everyday life. Among the results were reliability of hardware and full acceptance by customers, the insight to build local actor networks by demonstration projects and the urgent need to build a fuelling station network.

The consecutive VIP panel discussion, moderated by Walter Huber, General Manager of IIT and a knowledgeable person in hydrogen and fuel cells, revealed further insights. One topic was the use of local energy resources, i.e. renewable hydropower in South Tyrol, which should specifically aim at diminishing the region’s import of fossil energy, in particular mineral oil. The automobile manufacturers spoke of their responsibility to provide sufficient numbers of vehicles to sustain the refuelling infrastructure being built. They also showed awareness to help solving the environmental challenges, both in the Brenner Autobahn valleys and in the cities, which draw from tourism as one of the major income source in the region. Several speakers found continuity to be a key ingredient to introduce hydrogen and fuel cells in transport.

The conference drew 140 out of 170 invited guests into to the meeting venue and about 40 journalists attended the event, even though the weather was challenging with hard rain. A vital sign of success was that the organisers, without exception, received only positive feedback.

The contribution of H2moves Scandinavia to the Klimamobility event was to report on the project’s demonstration results and offer test-driving of several FCEVs on the indoor driving track. It was pointed out that fuel cell vehicles are ordinary electric vehicles but, in contrast to battery electric vehicles, without range anxiety and long refuelling times. Adding up the number of test drives from both the H2moves Scandinavia and the Klimamobility events, gives about 300 individual drivers and about 350 single trips in three days. This is a number believed to be a record in any of the similar test drive events so far in Europe!

Klimamobility was visited by about 7,200 visitors, with in total 196 exhibitors. In total more than 440 persons participated in the international congresses of the parallel Klimaenergy and Klimamobility congresses.

The Bolzano event was concluded by four of the fuel cell vehicles participating in the Ecomobility rally in the mountains over Bolzano, a 65 km distance, including the four most spectacular pass of the Dolomites, UNESCO world heritage area since 2010.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]