Expanding beyond its core competency, providing fuel cell solutions for material handling equipment, Plug Power (PLUG -3.11%) announced today that it will soon compete in the large-scale backup power market with its new GenSure HP (high power) platform. GenSure is designed as a a modular solution, which will allow customers to scale up from initial configurations of 500 kilowatts, 1 megawatt, and 1.5 megawatts. Characterizing it as "a reliable and rapidly deployable solution for power-hungry data centers, energy storage systems, microgrids, and other high power commercial facilities," management expects production of the GenSure HP platform to begin in December with customer deliveries commencing in 2021.
With the new offering, Plug Power will become a greater threat to one of its leading fuel cell peers, Bloom Energy (BE -3.22%), which competes in the stationary power market through its Bloom Energy Servers platform. Like Plug Power's GenSure HP platform, Bloom Energy's solution can be scaled up to meet a wide range of power needs. The announcement of Plug Power's new offering comes a day after Bloom Energy revealed that it intends to enter the commercial hydrogen market, an area where Plug Power is especially focused after its acquisitions of United Hydrogen Group and Giner ELX.
Image source: Plug Power.
Speaking to the merits of the new platform, Andy Marsh, Plug Power's CEO, said, "The GenSure HP platform is a reliable and cost-effective solution for any commercial facilities looking to upgrade their current large-scale backup power systems, and especially for those who wish to deploy sustainable solutions to support critical megawatt systems."
Plug Power's investors should closely monitor how the company fares in this new endeavor. If Plug Power fails to report success with the GenSure HP platform, it could portend trouble the company's ability to meet its auspicious 2024 revenue forecast of $1 billion.
