Sustainability & Safety

New Washing Facility for Buses

At the end of January 2022, we put our new bus wash facility into operation. The new building at the depot includes two lanes with a height of up to 8 meters, one lane as a washing facility and one lane for maintenance. In the future, we will be able to wash and maintain all vehicles from 8 seats and with a maximum length of 15 meters here.

The special feature of the new wash facility is its environmental compatibility in terms of water consumption and power supply.

834 liters of water are consumed per wash. 675 liters (81%) of this is recycled used water. This used wash water is recycled by means of an internal water recovery system and fed back into the wash system. This means that only about 19% fresh water needs to be added. In addition, the spray pipes are equipped with water-saving nozzles to minimize water flow.

One washing process requires about 1.5 kwh of electricity. We generate most of the required energy from the photovoltaic system on the roof of the building. This covers a module area of 136 square meters and produces up to 27,000 kwh of electricity per year. In connection with a 28 kwh Tesla lithium battery storage with emergency power function inside the hall, we are able to produce up to 85% of the required energy output of the entire building ourselves. In addition to the car wash, the entire building also includes eight apartments for employees.

Due to its height, the hall is already designed to be able to service and repair electric buses here. Battery modules on the roof can be (dis)assembled by a crane.

A washing process takes about 6 minutes. Considering the entrance and exit, we can thus clean a good 8-9 buses per hour. From now on, the new washing plant will be tested for its capacity utilization in regular operation. In addition to our own vehicles, the vehicles of the district-owned LSE will also be washed.