Power to the Planet!

This Earth Day, Plug is celebrating POWER. The Power to Choose clean energy and the Power Created by that clean energy. As a company, we’re most passionate about helping business get done cleaner and more efficiently with hydrogen fuel cell technology. This approach powers long-term potential to make the electrified world a reality, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and making the world a better place.

Plug Power built a power business where one didn’t exist, putting zero emission hydrogen fuel cell power solutions, branded GenDrive, in electric lift truck vehicles. Now, we’re also shipping ProGen fuel cell engines for use as range extenders in commercial trucks. And as we look to the future, we believe there’s vast potential for hydrogen in far more electric vehicle applications – commercial buses, autonomous vehicles, you name it.

According to Plug Power customers, including leading retail giants like Walmart and Carrefour (France), when it comes to hydrogen and fuel cells, Plug Power is leading the pack – establishing the “gold standard” for clean power within the industry.

When businesses choose fuel cell-power over the incumbent technology, management is choosing to power its operations with clean energy. How much energy depends on the use case.

This is where things get exciting.  Two facilities using a combined 200 trucks produce and use up to 1,400 megawatt hours of clean energy each year. That’s enough to power a city the size of Dayton, OH*. Power not coming from combustion engines or lead-acid batteries, but from zero-emission hydrogen fuel cells.

Twenty-five facilities can produce up to 17.5 gigawatt hours of clean energy each year – enough to power a city the size of Phoenix, AZ or Philadelphia, PA – if it wasn’t powering forklifts instead.

According to research done by Georgia Tech’s Climate and Energy Policy Lab, “On average in the United States, electric urban delivery trucks use about 30 percent less total energy and emit about 40 percent less greenhouse gases than diesel trucks” (taking into account wells-to-wheels fuel production/emissions/daily operation). The addition of Plug Power’s ProGen fuel cell enables an electric freight vehicle’s range to extend from 60 miles to 160 miles (a 166% improvement), which is enough to complete delivery routes all day without recharging (or refueling).

Looking at the output in this way makes clear the positive impact clean hydrogen fuel cells are having on sustainability globally for industrial and electric vehicle applications, today.

With more than 20,000 units in the field, 150 million hours of fleet operation, over 11 million hydrogen fills and a commitment to continued innovation, Plug Power has set the Gold Standard for industrial electric vehicle power.

#EarthDay #InfiniteDrive

*https://www.quora.com/How-much-electricity-does-an-industrialized-city-of-1-million-people-consume