NY LG Delgado tours Plug Power as Hochul administration prioritizes green energy investments
In New York’s Capital Region, efforts to manufacture alternative power sources are in full swing. Plug Power’s new plant for hydrogen-cell batteries is drawing attention from Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration as it looks to promote a green economy.
New York Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado toured Plug Power’s plant in Slingerlands Monday, about two months after Governor Kathy Hochul announced the 350,000-square-foot site had been completed. Delgado’s visit comes as state budget negotiations intensify ahead of an April 1st deadline. Delgado says clean energy is a main focus of the administration’s $227 billion spending proposal.
“They always say the budget reflects your priorities, and so we want to make sure that we reflect our priorities of course here in New York, but also at the national level,” said Delgado.
Plug Power, which specializes in hydrogen fuel cells and is based in Latham, has committed to creating more than 1,600 jobs at the new $125 million facility, while retaining 700 jobs in Albany County. Hochul, a Democrat, said New York has committed $45 million in state tax credits for the effort.
Delgado says the administration is tackling climate change head-on, and that the projects overseen by Plug Power to develop green energy sources are a great step toward to meeting those goals.
“We have the capacity right now with the work that’s being done here to really, you know, help with the forklifts and commercial vehicles and making sure that – from a sort of economies of scale perspective – we’re seeing its application and how powerful it can be,” the lieutenant governor said.
Delgado added the renewable energy economy is a bandwagon people should want to be on.
“And so, if you are someone who is working in this space, if you are investing in this space, you want to ride the wave here, that we are creating, that we are generating here,” he said. “Both for moral reasons, for our young people, but also economic ones.”
As we rapidly approach a point where scientists say climate change will be too severe to stop, developed nations like the United States are on track to miss their climate goals. The first step that many of those countries have set is eliminating fossil fuels from the power economy.
Plug Power’s President and CEO Andy Marsh said the company is doing its part to help meet that goal, including committing to the Capital Region.
“There was a question to the lieutenant governor about ‘why are you here.’ This is a pretty good area,” Marsh said. “You have great schools, like UAlbany, Rensselaer, Union, Clarkson up north, so you have this good feeder level of engineers that come in. You’re also beginning to see an engineering ecosystem developing between the nanotech center, all the foundries that are being developed, and you start thinking this is a good place to be for that.”
Marsh said Plug Power has been working with local schools to prepare students to enter the field.
“We have done different programs, not only at the college level, but at the local level, to make sure young students know about fuel cells and hydrogen, to help them develop the right skills,” he said.
As for the safety of building batteries whose fuel source is hydrogen instead of lithium or a nickel-metal hydride, Marsh says hydrogen cell technology is far from new.
“From Plug’s perspective, we’ve been doing this for 25 years. We’ve learned a lot, and when you think about a lot of technologies, it does take a while for them to mature,” Marsh said. “And we developed the first real commercial market in the world here in the Capital Region for hydrogen fuel cells putting fuel cells in the forklift trucks.”
The major difference between previous hydrogen fuel cells and those developed by Plug Power is that they can recharge much more quickly, according to the company. Compared to traditional batteries, Plug Power’s are capable of outputting the same amount of electricity for their entire lifespan.
