- Plug Power Reports Record Gross Billings in the Second Quarter
- Completed Strategic Acquisitions in Line with its Green Hydrogen Vertical Integration Strategy
- Issued First Ever Convertible Green Bond in the US
- Delivered record gross billings of $72.4M in Q2 2020 supporting our customers during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Completed acquisitions of United Hydrogen and Giner ELX, accelerating our green hydrogen strategy
- Reaffirming 2020 full year guidance and providing Q3 2020 guidance of $110M to $115M for gross billings
- Reaffirming recently increased 2024 financial targets to achieve $1.2B in revenue (up from $1B), $200M in operating income (up from $170M) and $250M in adjusted EBITDA (up from $200M)
- Engaged with multiple locations to build a center-of-excellence fuel cell and electrolyzer stack Gigafactory
- Issued first ever convertible green bond in the US
- Ongoing expansion in Europe to build a substantial presence in our core market of material handling and expand into on-road and other applications, and green hydrogen generation business with strategic partners
- Hosting second annual Plug Symposium on September 24, 2020
Delivered Record Gross Billings in Q2 2020 amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Company achieved the highest second quarter gross billings in its history during Q2 2020. This reflects year-over-year growth of 24% and 68% growth sequentially above a record Q1 2020. The Q2 2020 quarter included multiple one-time items reflecting the closing of two strategic acquisitions and the recently completed financing transactions.
Plug Power deployed a record 2,800 GenDrive fuel cell systems and three hydrogen fueling stations/network in the Q2 2020 quarter, bringing the total historical deployments to
~35,000 GenDrive systems and 100 hydrogen fueling stations/network. With continued growth in its MEA production from its Rochester, NY operation, Plug Power is the largest producer of MEAs in the Americas and is one of the top five producers in the world.
Despite the COVID-19 global crisis, Plug Power has deployed over 5,000 fuel cell units year-to- date with customers, with over 545.1 million hours of runtime in the field and 29.4 million hydrogen fills performed. These staggering numbers underscore the importance of the impact our products are making on the global supply chain and sustainability during this pandemic. For example, as of year-end 2019, Plug Power’s products were moving 25% of the retail food and groceries through the United States as we support the needs of customers like Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, SuperValu, Wegmans, and Aryzta. In the first quarter of 2020, Plug Power reported that number had risen to approximately 30% as demand peaked with key customers and this trend continued during Q2 2020.
Aryzta, a supplier in the international food business, recently quantified the benefits and value proposition of our GenDrive hydrogen fuel cells. Aryzta highlighted that our hydrogen fuel cell systems have streamlined its logistics, increasing average picks-per-hour by 100% in 2018,
trending to a 133% increase in 2020. Aryzta has set ambitious goals for future productivity projections to reach a 188% increase in picks-per-hour over the baseline. This customer example presents an ideal use-case for capitalizing on productivity improvements in high-asset utilization applications as a result of Plug Power’s GenDrive hydrogen fuel cell system.
Plug Power continues to leverage strong relationships with our supply chain. We worked diligently to manage and grow the capability of our supply chain to meet increased volumes while reducing cost. In addition, during the Q2 2020 quarter, Plug Power’s service team ensured that customer equipment availability was maintained at the highest levels given the essential nature of our product and service offerings.
Completed Acquisitions – Continuing to Execute on its Previously Laid Out Green Hydrogen Vertical Integration Strategy
Plug Power is at the center of the paradigm shift in the energy, transportation and power industries. The continued adoption of our fuel cell products has resulted in Plug Power being the largest user of liquid hydrogen in the world. With the acquisitions of United Hydrogen and Giner ELX, Plug Power is now positioned to be a global leader in generation, liquefaction and distribution of green hydrogen
fuel, further complementing its industry-leading accomplishments in the design, construction, and operation of customer-facing hydrogen fueling networks. Plug Power remains focused on the transition from low-carbon to zero-carbon hydrogen to serve our customers in our traditional markets of on-road vehicles and industrial applications, in line with our sustainability goals and focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As we have previously discussed, we believe that domestically produced green hydrogen strengthens energy and national security.
In June 2020, Plug Power closed the acquisitions of United Hydrogen and Giner ELX, solidly positioning Plug Power to transition from low-carbon to zero-carbon hydrogen solutions. These vertical integrations are in line with Plug Power’s hydrogen business strategy laid out in September of 2019 to have more than 50% of the hydrogen used to be green by 2024. Through these acquisitions, we now bring unmatched industry capabilities to participate in, as well as facilitate the anticipated rapid growth of the massive hydrogen economy. According to McKinsey, this industry is expected to be $2.5T by 2050.
Plug Power’s Giner ELX electrolyzer business is key to generating green hydrogen from renewable sources of power including solar, wind and hydro. Plug Power’s hydrogen business brings industry-leading capabilities in liquefaction and logistics. By combining these comprehensive in-house capabilities Plug Power is executing on its previously announced strategy of building a network of green liquid hydrogen generation facilities throughout the US and Europe, while continuing to work with multiple strategic partners. Over the next several years, Plug Power expects to be one of the largest green hydrogen generation companies in the US, and globally thereafter.
With low cost renewables, green hydrogen production is more economical today when compared to steam-methane reforming (SMR)-based grey hydrogen in multiple US and European locations, even before taking into consideration policy initiatives such as LCFS (low carbon fuel standard credit), carbon pricing and many other policies being contemplated on a global basis. We expect the cost of green hydrogen to continue to decline, driven by the falling levelized cost of renewable electricity and reductions we will achieve in the system CapEx costs.
Since the deals closed in June, Plug Power has integrated the United Hydrogen group and developed a division of the company focused on building liquid green hydrogen plants throughout North America. We are currently executing on plans to expand the United Hydrogen generation site to 10T per day capacity. Additionally, the team from Giner ELX is at work, focusing on manufacturing scale-up of the electrolyzer business by leveraging our manufacturing and supply chain capability.
Given Plug Power’s experience as the largest manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell systems, and a well-developed global supply chain, we can leverage these capabilities to drive costs down for both the electrolyzer and liquefaction business.
In concert with these acquisitions, the Company is in the final planning process for a strategic expansion of manufacturing capability to support our continued growth. The Company is in discussions with multiple locations for the siting of a state-of-the-art facility for fuel cell and electrolyzer production at Gigawatt scale capacity. The location is planned to be finalized during 3Q 2020 with operations beginning in 2021.
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