Plug Power has signed a joint venture agreement with the world's largest hydrogen provider to drive global fuel cell adoption.

The firm, which makes the GenDrive family of fuel cell products, hopes the deal with Air Liquide will meet the growing demand for new power systems in the European material handling market.

Francois Darchis, senior vice-president at Air Liquide, explains: "The forklift market prefigures the future development of the hydrogen-powered automobile market."

The two firms are currently working in conjunction on GenDrive system and hydrogen infrastructure deployments at Walmart in Canada and a Coca-Cola facility in California.

Both now hope to gain ground in the potentially lucrative European material handling market, which consists of 325,000 annual forklift truck sales and an existing installed base of two million forklift trucks.

Andy Marsh, chief executive officer at Plug Power, said Air Liquide is the "ideal partner" for spearheading fuel cell adoption in Europe.

"We look forward to working hand-in-hand with Air Liquide to bring the economic and environmental benefits of GenDrive fuel cell products to the European material handling industry," he added.

Plug Power has so far shipped around 1,500 units of its GenDrive forklift systems to companies including Wegmans, Whole Foods, and FedEx Freight.

Source:

Plug Power Announces Joint Venture With Air Liquide to Meet Growing European Fuel Cell Demand (09/11/11) 

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