Plug Power Abandons New York Green Hydrogen Project, Sells Space to Data Center

Plug Power is abandoning the construction of what the company touted would be North America's largest green hydrogen plant in western New York and has agreed to sell the site to a data center developer.

Summary

Plug Power is abandoning the construction of what the company touted would be North America's largest green hydrogen plant in western New York and has agreed to sell the site to a data center developer.

Official End to Major Project

In what seems indicative of the times, Plug Power, one of the U.S.' leading companies in green hydrogen and electrolyzer production, is abandoning a project to construct what it claimed was going to be North America's largest green hydrogen production facility. Instead, it has sold the site and existing infrastructure to data center developer Stream Data Centers. Construction on the site had been underway for some time, and Industrial Info had expected the green hydrogen plant to be completed by the end of this year, although construction pauses had hindered the project's timeline. The green hydrogen project, located within Genesee County's Science, Technology & Advanced Manufacturing Park, was in development for more than four years and was initially planned to be built in two phases, with the first phase delivering 45 million metric tons per day of green hydrogen produced from renewable energy. A second phase of construction was to have pushed this to 80 million tons per day, but over time the project has been scaled back, particularly since the beginning of the second Trump administration, and had more or less abandoned plans for a second round of building and appeared to be aiming for 45 million tons per day only.

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U.S. Green Hydrogen Woes

While the Biden administration was accommodating in providing financial and policy support to green hydrogen and other clean energy projects, the second administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has worked to cancel as much of this support as possible. One of the major announcements from the Trump administration in regard to the Biden-era funding came on the final day of September last year, when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it was terminating 321 financial rewards for 223 U.S. clean energy projects, "resulting in a savings of approximately $7.56 billion dollars for American taxpayers," according to the DOE. Plug Power watched as $1.66 billion in federal loan guarantees for six facilities vanished, along with funding for other companies' green hydrogen plants and storage facilities in what the Biden administration envisioned as a network hydrogen hubs across the U.S. in areas including California, the Gulf Coast, the Midwest, Appalachia and the Rockies. Industrial Info Resources is tracking at least $14 billion of affected hydrogen hub projects, many of which have been officially cancelled or placed on hold, while the futures of others remain in limbo.

Early Signs of Trouble

That withdrawal of funding was a blow to Plug Power, which is involved in green hydrogen production across the value chain, manufacturing not only green hydrogen, but also the electrolyzers to produce it and the hydrogen fuel cells used in other applications such as vehicles. In November, the company announced plans to monetize existing assets to the tune of $275 million and suggested this included liquidating the New York project, construction of which was advanced along with that of a 450-megawatt (MW) substation. The company, which now finds itself selling the assets to a data center developer, suggested it might pivot into the data center and artificial intelligence sectors. The overall future of the company remains unclear; this month, shareholders voted to further dilute shares by issuing more common shares. The company reportedly has around 1.39 outstanding shares (total shares held), including 1.33 billion publicly floated shares (held by general public) and is planning to boost this number to 3 billion shares. It is not Plug Power's first dilution of shares. Investment firms BlackRock and Vanguard have been major shareholders in the company.

Official Announcement

The New York sale was made official last week, when Plug announced it was selling the project in the STAMP development to Stream Data Centers. Under the deal, Plug will receive proceeds of at least $132.5 million for the land and existing construction. Completion of the sale is expected by the end of June this year. With the New York sale accounting for roughly half of Plug's $275 million monetization plan, what other facilities may be liquidated remains the big question. Most of Plug's existing U.S. production (roughly a combined 40 million to 45 million tons per day of green hydrogen--the equivalent of what the New York plant was to have produced alone) comes from three plants in Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana.

Wrong Continent?

While Plug's operations in its North American home (it is headquartered in Latham, New York) are not doing particularly well, a look at Plug's activities over the last six months reveals a flurry of sales and developments in Europe and Central Asia. In late October, the company finalized a deal to supply 2 gigawatts (GW) of electrolyzers to Uzbekistan. The following month, Plug began installing electrolyzers on a Dutch project and agreed to supply 55 MW of electrolyzers to U.K. projects. In December, the company agreed to supply a 5-MW electrolyzer to a French project, and in February, Plug completed a 100-MW electrolyzer installation at Galp Energia's refinery in Sines, Portugal. Plug's New York sale leaves little in the way of U.S. projects in the near future, but in Europe, Industrial Info is tracking more than US$2.7 billion in active Plug Power projects, all of which are in various stages of planning. The largest of these projects is planned for Finland, where Plug is evaluating construction plans for a green hydrogen facility and, further downstream, a green ammonia plant.

The Data Center

Plug is selling the STAMP site in New York to Texas-based Stream Data Centers, which is expected to break ground on the project later this year for Building 1, a 664,000-square-foot facility that will feature closed-loop air-cooling technology that reduces water consumption--one of data centers' thorniest issues when it comes to available resources. The development could eventually have three buildings totaling more than 2 million square feet, which the company's most recent purchase from Plug could help facilitate.

Key Takeaways

• Plug Power confirms it has sold the land and infrastructure for an uncompleted green hydrogen plant in western New York.

• Plug claimed the plant would be the largest green hydrogen plant in North America.

• The federal government took back more than $1.6 billion in federal funding support for Plug projects in late September.

• Plug has sold the plant assets to Stream Data Centers.

About IIR News Intelligence

IIR News Intelligence is a trusted source of news for the industrial process and energy markets, powered by Industrial Info Resources' Global Market Intelligence (GMI).

About Industrial Info Resources

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 Trillion (USD).