Plug Power Slashes Workforce, Seeks New Strategy

Plug Power, the best distributed fuel cell company you’ve never heard of, is firing 21 percent of its workforce. The company was spun out from Michigan utility DTE Energy a few years ago as a new entrant in the distributed fuel cell market. Unfortunately, that market failed to materialize. Plug Power has offered severance packages to 80 employees at its production facility in New York, and will change focus from research and development to sales and marketing in a bid to turn a profit. Because nothing spells success like an aborted R&D process.

Is Plug Power the canary in the coal mine for other distributed fuel cell companies? Bloom Energy, a company Kleiner Perkins has dropped close to $200 million on in the last few years, has yet to show off its final product.  Though there is a rumor floating around they’ve set up a manufacturing facility in India. Still, the question of whether consumers will go for totally distributed systems in the form of basement fuel cells remains. The constant availability of hydrogen as a fuel input is another issue. Hydrogen production and distribution systems aren’t exactly widespread - except in small parts of California, and those are controlled by  municipal governments with fuel cell buses.