Plug Power drops plan for joint electrolyser production with FFI

January 27 (Renewables Now) - Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) has abandoned its plan to jointly build an electrolyser factory with Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), the head of the US turnkey hydrogen solutions provider confirmed on Thursday.

Plug’s CEO Andrew Marsh said the following on a conference call: “We decided that we didn’t want to build a factory with them because we saw the economics, we could do better. So, we really didn’t think that was worthwhile to move ahead, though, we’re still working with them on electrolysers.”

In mid-October, Plug unveiled its involvement in FFI’s plan to establish an electrolyser factory with an initial annual capacity of 2 GW as part of an ambitious green manufacturing project at Gladstone in the Australian state of Queensland. The green energy business of Australian iron ore company Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) initiated construction work on the facility last February.

At the same time, on Thursday, Marsh placed emphasis on the company’s partnership with SK Group. The Korean industrial conglomerate made a USD-1.6-billion (EUR 1.47bn) capital investment in Plug two years ago and since then its SK E&S business formed a joint venture with the US company to build a Gigafactory in a key metropolitan area in South Korea by 2024.

“With SK, we are building hydrogen fuelling stations in South Korea as we speak. With SK, we are going to be doing over a thousand buses over the next 18 months. With SK, by 2025 we will have 400 MW of stationery products deployed. With SK, we will have a Gigafactory in place. SK has become a wonderful partner,” Marsh commented.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.918)