Plug Power Represents Proven Hydrogen Fuel Cell Success at World Economic Forum

“We live in a fast-paced and interconnected world where breakthrough technologies, demographic shifts and political transformations have far-reaching societal and economic consequences. More than ever, leaders need to share insights and innovations on how to best navigate the future.” ~ The World Economic Forum

The 2017 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters has commenced, bring together the world’s top leaders in collaborative activities shaping global, regional and industry initiatives. For over four decades, the World Economic Forum’s mission – improving the state of the world – has driven the design and development of the Annual Meeting program.

This year’s program would be remiss to neglect a discussion regarding the ambitious environmental objectives set for climate and energy. This week, Plug Power’s CEO, Andy Marsh, joined the CEOs from several Global 2000 companies to announce the newly formed Hydrogen Council. The group includes representatives from Air Liquide, Linde, Toyota, Daimler, Shell and Anglo-American, gathering with the purpose to share their collective vision for the role that hydrogen technologies can play in the ongoing transition to clean energy.

The companies on the Hydrogen Council intend to cooperate to ensure the clean energy potential for hydrogen and fuel cell technology is recognized, and to help accelerate the safe and economic deployment of these technologies going forward.

Below is a summary of the comments Andy made during the announcement, highlighting the commercial progress and growth Plug Power has achieved, along with comments on our plans for the future.

January 17, 2017: Andy Marsh

From a high level, Plug Power is an entrepreneurial Company with a fairly short history. Our mission has been to change the way the world moves by establishing fuel cells as a viable technology solution for industrial vehicles.

The first successful market was converting electric forklift trucks to fuel cell power.

Today, we install our fuel cells into forklift trucks used in distribution centers and manufacturing facilities. The attributes of fuel cells, such as fast fueling, constant power, long runtime and smart interfaces, have allowed many customers to improve the productivity of their facilities. Our customers include Daimler, Walmart, Carrefour and P&G to name a few.

Most importantly, we have had success – real commercial success – including:

• 14,000+ units in the field
• 122,000+ million hours of operating hours
• More than 4.5M hydrogen fueling in the 45 hydrogen stations we have built with fuel provided by Linde and Air Liquide
• 70% reduction in cost profile over past 4 years
• Smart interfaces leveraging the Internet of Things
• 300% growth – revenues, shipments, etc. over the past three years

Today, Plug Power is moving into other industrial mobile applications like delivery vans and buses – leveraging our proven technology and industry know-how.

For our entire industry to be successful, we must acknowledge that the stellar members of the Hydrogen Council can be critical in accelerating the development and cost-reduction of technologies, processes and logistics enabling ubiquitous hydrogen. The efforts by the Council in these areas can not only help for a cleaner environment but also to spur entrepreneurial businesses like Plug Power to grow and create value for society. I applaud their efforts and look forward to supporting their work.