Politicians ‘like what we do,’ PlugPower CEO says

PlugPower CEO Andy Marsh joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss company earnings, the green energy transition, supply chain snags, and more.

Video transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

AKIKO FUJITA: Going green with hydrogen, Plug Power is on a mission to tackle energy challenges by building green hydrogen plants to produce 500 tons of liquid hydrogen per day, that's by 2025. And we've got the company's CEO Andy Marsh with us in studio today. Good to have you on. Happy Friday.

ANDY MARSH: Great to be here, Akiko. Yes, and Happy Friday.

INES FERRE: Yes.

AKIKO FUJITA: Andy, I was thinking back to our last conversation. This was kind of at the height of the concerns around the energy crunch. And you were saying you were getting a lot of calls coming in, especially from Europe, about how do we invest in this, how do we expand.

But since then, it feels like things have softened a bit. And looking at where things have been moving, you've cut hydrogen production forecasts. You've abandoned plans for two plants. What's happening right now?

ANDY MARSH: Well, I'm going to kind of correct that with the two plants, Akiko. One of them I announced previously that we were in a position where we couldn't get enough electricity, so it didn't make sense. The second--

AKIKO FUJITA: Talking about a cost issue.

ANDY MARSH: The second one was we actually never announced we were going to do it, but we announced we weren't going to do it, so maybe a little confusing to some of our investors. But when I look at it, our sales funnel for hydrogen has never been larger. We've had some delays in supply chain, but we have not lost any orders.

My sales funnel for electrolyzers, which is the device that generates hydrogen, I think it's probably doubled since the last time we spoke. So I actually don't see this negative. I know how it's been reported, but I don't think it was captured correctly. I also think we didn't do a good enough job explaining it.

INES FERRE: And where do you see this demand coming from? I mean, is this because we saw oil going up so high and now-- now it's pulling back a bit though? Is there-- are there differences there when we're looking at oil prices sort of fluctuating?

ANDY MARSH: Yeah. So I think long-- and you always have to think a little long term here. If you believe people are going to address climate, people like Bloomberg will say 20% of the world's energy will come from hydrogen. Important item about hydrogen in fuel cells is we create a lot more jobs than batteries.

And that makes politicians, whether they're fossil fuel politicians or renewable energy politicians, like what we do. And the third one, the national security issues that the war in Ukraine really has highlighted the importance of us in the free world really dealing with our own energy independence. And all of those three are drivers.

AKIKO FUJITA: The broader conversation that's been happening when you think about renewables or green energy versus fossil fuels, it's sort of been framed in this context of a trade-off, right, you have one or the other. The reality is yesterday, we got that report from the IEA that suggests that investments have been accelerating.

And I wonder what you've been seeing from companies that you've been working with? Are corporations sort of creating this calculation with the slowdown that's happening in the broader economy that maybe we need to pull back on some of these investments to accelerate the transition? Or are you seeing the opposite?

ANDY MARSH: That's an interesting question, Akiko. And luckily, for many of our applications, we actually help customers save money. So when you think about what we're doing with Amazon and Walmart-- Amazon was under a lot of pressure yesterday-- but when you bring to the table not only renewable energy but it helps you save money in your present operations by making it more efficient, it's a much easier sales pitch. And during these difficult times, saving money does create value. And, look, long term, these companies all have goals for 2040, 2050 to meet their carbon goals, and they're doing it because their consumers want it.

AKIKO FUJITA: And what's been the impact from the Inflation Reduction Act? Have the incentives included in there help these companies maybe move in one direction or the other?

ANDY MARSH: Absolutely. If you look at the cost of green hydrogen today, it's lower than diesel fuel. It's lower than natural gas because of the Inflation Reduction Act. It also positions the US uniquely to be an exporter of green hydrogen, especially to Europe. So it has been a real boon to this industry but also, I think, to our long-term economy.

INES FERRE: And you had mentioned during the break that you were creating jobs in New York. So are you able to fill those jobs? I mean, we have heard about companies trying to fill jobs. How is that going?

ANDY MARSH: So young people actually like working at companies that have a mission.

INES FERRE: OK.

ANDY MARSH: And it makes it much easier to recruit young, talented engineers. And some of us old guys actually like working in the future too. So it's actually-- one of the things I love about Plug, we have such a wonderful mix of people from 21 to 80 years old who are really helping to drive this transition.

INES FERRE: Well, that's great to hear.

ANDY MARSH: Yeah.

INES FERRE: Thanks so much. Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh, thank you for joining us.

ANDY MARSH: Thank you for having me today. It was-- always a pleasure.