(Latham, NY / USA) – Plug Power Inc. is setting up a European headquarters in Germany. The headquarters should therefore be built in North Rhine-Westphalia. The US manufacturer of fuel cells and provider of solutions for the green hydrogen economy wants to significantly expand its presence abroad. The announcement was made during a meeting between Andy Marsh, CEO of Plug Power, and the North Rhine-Westphalia Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy, Andreas Pinkwart, in Washington.
When asked, a spokesman for the Minister of Economic Affairs explained that the location was in the Ruhr area. The company would provide further details. The state-owned foreign trade company NRW Global Business advised on the settlement. When asked whether NRW had promised the company financial, logistical or other support, it was said that Plug Power could “apply for regional economic development like any other company”.
The headquarters, initially measuring around 6.500 square meters, is planned as an innovation center. This includes, among other things, laboratories, a green hydrogen generator with an electrolyzer infrastructure on site, a shipping, inventor and logistics center as well as training rooms.
European business is constantly expanding
The expansion into Europe comes as Plug Power sees a growing customer base abroad who are increasingly interested in green hydrogen, said Marsh. The new headquarters will open at the beginning of 2022, initially with 30 employees. The workforce is expected to increase to almost 2022 employees by mid-60.
Plug Power has been present in Europe for more than ten years. In June, the company founded a joint venture with the Renault Group.Hyvia“. The seat is France. The aim is to “further develop low-carbon mobility” and bring hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles onto the market. Plug Power has also already installed several electrolysers with PEM technology in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Portugal.
Group is positioning itself for the future
The establishment of a European headquarters comes amid a global paradigm shift in the electricity, energy and transport sectors to achieve energy security, efficiency improvements and sustainability goals. In July, Plug Power brought David Mindnich into the group as Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing. Mindnich had previously managed the operation of the “Gigafactory” of the car manufacturer Tesla in Nevada, USA. In his role, he is supposed to modernize the production processes at Plug Power - as was the case at Tesla. Mindnich will manage 450 employees worldwide while continuing to expand the team, which is expected to grow to 1.000 employees within two years. A scale that the former Tesla “Senior Director of Operations” should not shy away from, after all, his previous team in the world's largest production facility for batteries and drive trains had around 5.000 employees.
Barely four weeks later, in mid-August, Andy March appointed four more new top managers - Ole Hoefelmann, Jose Luis Crespo, Keith Schmid and Sanjay Shrestha - to work closely with the CEO.
Hoefelmann, who has more than 30 years of experience in the hydrogen sector, will lead the “Electrolyzer Solutions” division. Crespo, a manager at Plug Power for seven years, heads the “Material Handling Solutions” division. Schmid, who has been with the company for eight years, has more than 30 years of experience in industrial power supply, energy storage and communication systems. He will take over the “Mobility and Stationary Power Solutions” division, where he will focus, among other things, on the introduction of commercial road vehicles and large stationary systems as well as the opening of a new Plug Power Innovation Center by the end of the year. The fourth new division, Energy Solutions, will be led by Shrestha, who will be tasked with building the first green hydrogen production network in the United States. Shrestha has also served as Chief Strategy Officer since 2019.
Make organizational structure scalable
The company is moving “from a single integrated business to a portfolio of related businesses,” March said. “We need a scalable organizational structure that allows the company to grow quickly across multiple markets and regions.” This helps to achieve the growth goals. This includes the construction of five green hydrogen plants, the acquisition of five “anchor” customers in the material handling sector, the establishment of a vehicle market under the Plug Power brand and the further reduction of the costs of fuel cell technology.
Plug Power says it has commissioned more than 40.000 fuel cell systems for electric mobility and has become the largest buyer of liquid hydrogen "more than anyone else in the world" by building and operating a "hydrogen highway" through North America. The company expects record gross sales of $2022 million for the 750 calendar year. By 2025, Plug Power wants to generate 500 tons of green hydrogen per day.
Editor's note: The article was supplemented on September 16th to include information from the spokesman for the Minister of Economic Affairs, which was not yet available at the time of going to press.
Photos
Plug Power is on its way to Europe / © Plug Power Corp.
