Plug Power partners SK Group, eyes China and Vietnam.
U.S. hydrogen fuel cell maker Plug Power, which counts Walmart and Amazon as its clients, is planning to expand its businesses in China, Vietnam and South Korea, through a joint venture with conglomerate SK Group.
Earlier this year, South Korea’s SK made a $1.6 billion investment in the Nasdaq-listed company. Through the joint venture, the two companies are planning to set up a factory in South Korea by 2023 to produce fuel cells and electrolyzers that extract “green hydrogen” from water using renewable energy.
Such products would be used “especially in South Korea, but we also believe, based on SK’s partnerships, in China and Vietnam,” Andrew Marsh, president and CEO of Plug Power, told Nikkei Asia in a recent interview. He suggested that Asia would be an important part of the company’s target of achieving revenue of $1.7 billion by 2024, from $337 million in gross billings in 2020.
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“In the next four or five years, Asia could be one-third of Plug Power’s business,” Marsh said.
Asian governments are starting to focus on the development of hydrogen as a green energy source. Particularly in South Korea and Japan, government commitments and public pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions has led to a surge of interest in hydrogen, which does not emit carbon dioxide when burnt.
South Korea’s 160 trillion won ($144 billion) New Deal economic strategy announced last year was focused on developing a greener economy and included the target of putting 200,000 hydrogen vehicles on the road and setting up 450 charging facilities by 2025.
“I had sales people in South Korea, talking to many companies” to find a local partner, said Marsh. “Simultaneously, SK was reaching out to some of our partners here in the United States,” he said.
US hydrogen company, with partner SK, eyes China and Vietnam, May 5, 2021
