The Loan Programs Office last week announced a conditional commitment to Plug Power Inc. for up to $1.66 billion in the form of a loan guarantee to help finance the construction of up to six facilities across several states to produce clean hydrogen.
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office
May 21, 2024
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The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Loan Programs Office last week announced a conditional commitment to Plug Power Inc. for up to $1.66 billion in the form of a loan guarantee to help finance the construction of up to six facilities across several states to produce clean hydrogen utilizing the company's electrolyzer technology.
As part of President Biden's Investing in America agenda to create good-paying, high-quality job opportunities for American workers, this loan guarantee, if finalized, will support up to 300 jobs during the construction period when at full capacity, and at least 50 new full-time jobs for each location. Together with the vision laid out in the National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, and ongoing research, development, and demonstration through the DOE Hydrogen Program, this project will help strengthen local economies, create and maintain high-quality jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions in sectors critical to meeting U.S. net-zero goals, and enhance America's manufacturing and industrial competitiveness.
Plug Power operates clean hydrogen production facilities in several locations across the United States to supply its national customer base with clean hydrogen at scale. If this conditional commitment is finalized into a loan guarantee, it will advance efforts to strengthen domestic clean energy supply chains, which are essential to meeting the nation's ambitious climate goals and enhancing our national and energy security.
These new clean hydrogen facilities will utilize Plug Power's electrolyzer stacks that are manufactured at the company's state-of-the-art gigafactory in Rochester, New York, and will use modular designs to ensure a resilient hydrogen fuel delivery network. Plug Power is among the leading commercial-scale manufacturers of electrolyzers in the United States and currently operates the nation's largest proton exchange membrane electrolyzer system at its Georgia hydrogen plant.
Plug Power has a proven history of hydrogen innovation—the company successfully demonstrated the use of hydrogen fuel cell-powered lift trucks more than a decade ago through funding opportunities managed by DOE's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO). HFTO has partnered with Plug Power for many years, providing funding that has supported their work in research, development, demonstration, and deployment. This conditional loan guarantee is one of many positive outcomes from that partnership.