Plug Power’s headquarters are in New York. It designs and manufactures PEM fuel cells and hydrogen dispensing stations, initially for the materials handling market. The material handling market was chosen because fuel cells give a superior return on assets to batteries as the on-board energy source can be replenished much more quickly. Plug is the market leader in this niche, having shipped over 32,000 units and built over 90 hydrogen fuelling stations. Customers include Amazon, Carrefour, Home Depot and Walmart. Plug has announced plans to build a manufacturing facility able to output 1.5GW of capacity annually, equivalent to more than 60,000 fuel cell stacks. Management believes that once it is operational, which is scheduled for mid-2021, it will be the world’s first PEM fuel cell gigafactory, and the combination of automation, vertical integration and volume leverage will deliver a 50% cost reduction.
Plug has diversified into on-road applications, offering systems with powers up to 125kW for delivery vans, light and medium duty cargo trucks used for on-road middle-mile delivery and heavy- duty trucks used for high utilisation last-mile delivery or long-haul trucking. Customers include FedEx, Linde, which intends to use the systems in its own delivery vehicles, and MULAG, a German developer of ground support systems for the aviation industry. It also offers lightweight, rugged UAV propulsion systems. In a further diversification, it is partnering with Universal Hydrogen, an end-to-end fuel logistics company, to develop a 2MW hydrogen-electric aircraft powertrain to power commercial regional aircraft. Plug expects that this technology will enable a converted mid-sized regional turboprop aircraft (such as the Dash 8 or ATR42/72 families) to fly missions up to 1,000km. This range serves over 90% of existing routes and is far longer than what would be achievable with battery power alone.
In July 2020 Plug announced the launch of its GenSure HP (high power) platform designed for large-scale, high power backup power applications, taking it into another large market. Initially this platform will be available in power output configurations ranging from 500–1,500kW.
Bringing down the cost of hydrogen is key to achieving the company’s growth objectives. In September 2019 Plug signed a three-year agreement with industrial gas supplier United Hydrogen, providing a source of low-cost hydrogen and helping Plug increase the proportion of green hydrogen