Plug Power (PLUG): Driving the Green Hydrogen Revolution

Toward A Hydrogen-Powered Economy

Green hydrogen could, in theory, be the perfect fuel for a green future: it can be produced from renewable electricity, does not produce any pollutants when consumed, and requires only water as a material for its production.

Hydrogen can also be the precursor of other green fuels, for example, ammonia or synthetic fuel.

It is a solid alternative to fossil fuels for applications where direct electrification is difficult, for example:

• Metallurgy & chemicals production.
• Ocean-going transports and other ships.
• Heavy-duty transport.

So far, a true hydrogen economy has struggled to get started, as production costs were simply too high to compete with EVs and fossil fuels. A lack of infrastructure, scale, and the domination of legacy systems benefiting fossil fuels was another issue.

But a series of innovations and investments is quickly changing the situation:

• Expensive platinum required as a catalyst in electrolysis for hydrogen production could be replaced by iron, cobalt, nickel, titanium, tungsten, or silicon carbide.
• Hydrogen production could be made from seawater and coupled with desalination in a single device.
• The European Hydrogen Backbone initiative is the latest of global plans to build infrastructure to produce, transport, and store hydrogen at a truly massive scale.

All of these innovations and investments are likely to make hydrogen a lot more popular as an alternative fuel, especially as green energy becomes cheaper with collapsing solar costs.

A good way to use hydrogen to generate electricity is fuel cells. And one company is already mass-producing fuel cells for the logistics industry: Plug Power.

How Fuel Cells Work

The parts of fuel cells that generate electricity from the consumption of hydrogen are the proton exchange membranes (PEMs).

Fuel cells work by catalyzing the conversion of hydrogen (H₂) into protons (H+ ions) + electrons, creating an electrical current.

Often, the catalyst to this reaction is platinum, although here, too, new alternatives are being discovered by scientists to reduce fuel cell costs.

Plug Power Overview

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Plug power has deployed during the history of the company more than 69,000 fuel cell systems and over 250 fueling stations, more than anyone else in the world, and is the largest buyer of liquid hydrogen.

The core of the company’s current market is in material handling, powering forklifts. Its fuel cell engines power over 40,000 forklifts. Plug Power owns 95% of the current market share for hydrogen fuel cells in the material handling space.

The company holds 150 patents and benefits from the experience of more than 1 billion hours of operations performed by its fuel cells, consuming 45 tons of hydrogen every day, with 80% for blue-chip customers.

Source: Plug Power

Plug Power offers more than 100 different configurations and material handling devices. Contrary to fossil fuels, hydrogen forklifts do not emit fumes and noise, which is often a problem in industrial facilities and warehouses.

And contrary to battery-powered systems, they are lighter and quicker to recharge (3 minutes versus 1 and a half hours), increasing their efficiency.

Fuel cells are also better able at handling temperature variations than batteries, which can be very important in cold or freezer facilities.

Lastly, fuel cells allow for lower electricity costs thanks to avoiding increased demand at peak price times.

Source: Plug Power

These solutions are already deployed in the warehouses and production facilities of companies like Amazon, BMW, Carrefour, Walmart, Home Depot, FedEx, etc.

This material handling application is important not just for the sales it generates, but because it made Plug Power the first hydrogen and fuel cell company to correctly identify a viable market for fuel cell technology when it was still in need of improvement. As a result, the company has seen its revenue grow 8x between 2025 and 2013.

As green hydrogen production costs decline and fuel cell technology progresses, this will provide a strong base for the company to expand. And of course, carbon emission restrictions and carbon taxes will likely help boost the profitability of hydrogen production and utilization further.

Electrolyzer Market

Beyond material handling, the company is looking to expand into the potentially much bigger market of large-scale electrolyzers (hydrogen production) and hydrogen plants.

Today, most of the hydrogen produced is used by the chemical industry and other industrial processes, and is so-called blue hydrogen: produced from natural gas.

As electricity and green hydrogen start to replace blue hydrogen, this could lead to the market for electrolyzers growing from $1.75B in 2025 to $40B by 2032. Other estimates even forecast a $78B electrolyzer market by 2030.

In contrast, green hydrogen is just 1.6% of total hydrogen production in 2025, but is growing extremely quickly, as it was just 0.1% in 2021.

Plug Power has already deployed 230 MW of electrolyzers, with initially a strong focus on Europe but now also covering Australia, Canada, the USA, and South America.

Source: Plug Power

The production in the USA is going to double when the hydrogen production plant in Texas is finished, adding to the facilities in Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

Source: Plug Power

Unique Technology

Plug Power’s current main product, the fuel cell, is regularly improving, with the latest version, the modular ProGen fuel cell engine platform, having seen a 15% increase in fuel efficiency and run-time relative to the stacks used in earlier GenDrive models.

The core of the company’s expansion into the electrolyzer market is its GenEco electrolyzer units. The company is looking to create a lot more electrolyzer facilities, thanks to its state-of-the-art Gigafactory being built. It will produce electrolyzers and fuel cells at a scale never seen before.

The company is also developing multiple green hydrogen production plants targeting commercial operation by year-end 2028.

Fuel Production

A major landmark deal for Plug Power is the 2 GW expanded partnership with Allied Biofuels for the deployment of up to 2 GW of GenEco PEM electrolyzers in Uzbekistan, for the “eSAF Project”, or “electro sustainable aviation fuel“.

Source: Allied Biofuels

It will use green hydrogen and captured CO2 to create liquid fuel that can be used by airplanes without needing any change to engines, with the entire facility powered by solar energy.

“Partnering with Plug’s world-class electrolyzer platform ensures we can achieve the scale, reliability, and performance our customers expect. Finalizing this supply agreement marks a major milestone as we progress toward FID.”

Alfred Benedict, Chairman of Allied Biofuels.

This deal followed another similar deal with Allied Green Ammonia (AGA) for a 3 GW collaboration in Australia.

“This agreement is proof that Plug delivers on what others are still planning. We’re turning hydrogen commitments into real, operating projects at multi-gigawatt scale.

Signing this supply agreement in Australia highlights our deep engagement in the global hydrogen economy and our ability to provide proven electrolyzer technology for SAF and eSAF production and decarbonization.”

Andy Marsh, CEO of Plug Power

The Path Toward Profitability

Plug Power has been a global actor in making hydrogen a viable economic activity, but has yet to become profitable.

The company is aiming for scale to reduce hydrogen production costs from $10/kg to $4/kg, while multiplying production by 14x in 2027. It should also replace all the externally sourced hydrogen, which was often resold to customers at a loss.

In 2025, the company reached the stage where it is gross margin neutral. It is aiming to increase profitability from this point onward, with profit to be achieved by 2028.

Source: Plug Power

Overall, even if the company is not profitable yet, having increased its production capacity 19x since 2020 is a sign of its radical evolution from the early stage focus on the material handling market.

Moving from a seller of fuel cell forklifts and buyer of hydrogen to a major producer and operator of electrolyzers and actor in hydrogen generation will represent a radical shift in the company’s profile.

Other markets

Power Backup

As hydrogen can be produced when green energy is in surplus, and used hours, days, or weeks later, it is a good candidate to provide power when intermittent renewables are insufficient.

In that use case, hydrogen production works like a battery as much as a fuel.

The company started by providing cell phone tower operators with its W-scale fuel cell generators, which can replace diesel-based backup generators.

Plug Power has now created its Megawatt-scale fuel cell generator, which can be used as backup power for data centers, EV charging stations, electric grids, etc.

Cryogenic Equipment

Plug Power’s subsidiaries ALLOY, WesMor, and Applied Cryo Technologies (ACT) offer cryogenic transportation, storage, and portable equipment solutions that the company itself uses to liquefy and carry hydrogen.

The same equipment can be used to handle and transport LNG and other industrial gases such as nitrogen, argon, and oxygen.

So, while not the company’s main market, its expertise in hydrogen handling could open up possibilities in this market as well.

Automotive & Trucks

Hydrogen cars and trucks have so far failed to reach the stage of mass adoption. For now, it seems that BEV (battery electric vehicles) are winning the war for green mobility solutions.

Still, some companies like Hyundai are betting big on hydrogen being the ultimate solution for mobility through its Hyundai Rotem subsidiary. For example, Hyundai revealed its INITIUM hydrogen fuel cell electric (FCEV) concept car at the end of 2024. Initium was ultimately replaced by the Hyundai Nexo, set to launch at the end of 2025. (You can read more about Hyundai in our dedicated report.)

Rapid refueling, higher energy density, and less “dead weight” of empty batteries are playing in favor of hydrogen vehicles over BEVs. However, limited fueling stations and distribution network, and relatively expensive fuel have been a recurring issue.

As hydrogen production progressively stops requiring platinum, and alternative catalysts for fuel cells, as well as a denser network of hydrogen distribution, are all developing, this might change.

If that is the case, Plug Power’s existing fuel production capacity could turn it into a key partner for auto manufacturers looking for a partner to provide them with the fuel cell they need.

In 2024, Plug Power revealed a hydrogen-powered truck for middle-mile deliveries. With up to 500 miles of range, it could provide a proof-of-concept for utility vehicles, potentially a better market, as logistic companies can also install their own hydrogen refueling facilities, and use power at a low price out of peak period to produce their fuel cheaply, while reducing downtime required for recharging compared to battery-powered trucks.

Conclusion

Plug Power is probably the most advanced company when it comes to commercializing profitable fuel cells and hydrogen fuel, thanks to its astute selection of the material handling market as a starting point.

This has placed it in a good position to benefit from the boom in the electrolyzer market, expected to grow 22x-44x by 2032. It could also benefit from greater utilization of hydrogen for power back-up applications, both local and utility-grid scale, or even transportation in the medium-term.

This maturation is coming at the right moment, just when Europe, Australia, and other developed economies are looking to more aggressively phase out fossil fuel, a goal only reachable with hydrogen fuel, as electrification alone will not be able to replace oil & gas for heavy industries, transportation, and long-duration energy storage.

Still, the company is only starting to get closer to profitability, having spent a massive amount of capital in growing production, improving its technology, and reaching out to new markets.