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Plug Symposium 2020: Celebrating Milestones and Mapping the Future

Published Date
Author Christian Sebastian

As we enter the final months of the year, we believe it’s important to take stock of the clean energy economy’s progress, potential and opportunities. To this end, Plug Power has hosted an annual symposium since 2019. This year’s Plug Symposium, held on September 24, 2020, featured virtual presentations from our executive leadership alongside partners, industry influencers and policymakers. Through these presentations and expert perspectives, the symposium charted the course for a hydrogen economy that meets global decarbonization and energy security needs, both for today and through 2050. 

Here are some key highlights from the Plug Symposium in 2020: 

Plug Power’s growth and progress toward its 2024 goals

Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh, Chief Strategy Officer Sanjay Shrestha, CFO Paul Middleton and a host of others recapped the incredible progress made toward the 5-year plan shared at last year’s symposium in their presentations. They announced that Plug Power is on track to achieve $310 million in gross billings and $20 million in EBITDA in 2020, an endorsement of the company’s long-term commitment to hydrogen energy. To build on these successes, Plug Power confirmed that the Company is on track to achieve $1.2 billion in annual sales by 2024.

The Plug Power team also discussed how recent acquisitions advanced its vertical integration strategy. Among the many growth statistics presented, Brent Koski, Vice President of Hydrogen Energy for Plug Power, shared that Plug Power’s material handling unit is on track to use 85 tons of hydrogen per day by 2024, with an increase of over 50% from 2019. 

Strengthened presence in Europe with a new strategy and executive hire

Making her debut as the Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Corine Dubruel discussed Plug Power’s expansion strategy for Europe, including crucial hydrogen markets such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom. She outlined Plug Power’s vision for 2030, centered on heavy-duty on and off-road applications and electrolyzers, and supported by new joint ventures and an integrated communications strategy. 

With her years of experience in the region’s hydrogen, e-mobility and renewable energy sectors, Corine will guide Plug Power’s efforts to become recognized as a leader in fuel cells and green hydrogen. 

New partnerships for transportation applications, liquid hydrogen generation

The Plug Symposium provided an opportunity to share exciting updates about new initiatives with an expanded set of industry-leading partners. This includes: 

  • A presentation from Universal Hydrogen CEO Paul Eremenko on the company’s work with Plug Power to retrofit regional airplanes to operate with hydrogen. This partnership brings together Universal Hydrogen’s distribution and aviation expertise with Plug Power’s lightweight fuel-cell stack technology to make hydrogen-powered passenger aviation commercially operational by 2024. 
  • Sanjay Shrestha’s announcement that Plug Power will source renewable energy from Brookfield Renewable Partners LP to power one of North America’s first green hydrogen production facilities, with the initial liquid hydrogen plant anticipated to be the first in a future network spanning North America.
  • A video message from Mark Goodwin, CEO of Apex Clean Energy, on the companies’ joint vision for a carbon-free future made possible through renewables and green hydrogen. Apex is now looking to utilize its wind power assets alongside Plug Power’s electrolyzers to generate green hydrogen. 
  • A video message from Dan Yankowski, President, Linde Gases US announcing a new MOU to demonstrate Plug Power’s ProGen fuel cell engine in Linde’s Class 6 and Class 8 vehicles. This new agreement, targeting on-road delivery by early 2021, builds on a long-term supplier relationship and will enable Linde to further minimize the carbon footprint of its operations.

We have made the Plug Symposium 2020 recording available on our YouTube channel for your viewing convenience. 

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