Governor Hochul announces completion of Plug Power's $125 million manufacturing facility in Albany County

Governor Kathy Hochul announced the completion of Plug Power's newest manufacturing facility, located at the Vista Technology Campus in Slingerlands, Albany County. The new location supports the company's efforts to significantly expand its line of GenDrive fuel cell systems, which are used to power electric motors in the electric mobility market. The company has committed to creating more than 1,600 new green jobs at this Capital Region location, complementing New York State's efforts to be a national leader in growing the green economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and combating climate change.

"New York's investment in Plug is an investment in the state's sustainable future," Governor Hochul says. "This new manufacturing facility is creating good, green jobs in the Capital Region and beyond - helping communities around the world break their dependence on fossil fuels by replacing them with cutting-edge green hydrogen technology. Earlier this week I laid out bold initiatives to drive down polluting emissions across the board, and Plug's expansion will help complement our efforts to create a greener, healthier New York for future generations."

Plug's new $125 million, 350,000 square foot plant will be used for expanding production, warehousing, and servicing of the GenDrive fuel cell product line, which offers drop-in fuel cell solutions for existing electric truck fleets. Additionally, the company has committed to creating more than 1,600 new, green jobs and retaining another 701 jobs in Albany County. Empire State Development (ESD) has agreed to provide up to $45 million in performance-based Green Excelsior Jobs Tax Credits to encourage the creation and retention of these green jobs. The project is also supported by 1310kW low-cost power allocation through the ReCharge NY program approved by the New York Power Authority (NYPA) Board of Trustees at its March 2022 meeting.

"Plug is proud that its new world-class manufacturing and services facility in Albany County will contribute to New York State's goal for clean renewable energy,” says CEO of Plug Andy Marsh. “We are grateful to our elected officials and partners, including Governor Hochul, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, Congressman Paul Tonko, Empire State Development, NYPA and Albany County, for their ongoing support in helping us grow our presence in New York and create more than 1,600 new green jobs."

This investment from Plug complements Governor Hochul's 2023 clean energy agenda. Under Governor Hochul's leadership, New York has advanced the nation's most aggressive policies to combat climate change, safeguard clean water and our natural environment, promote environmental justice, and advance the green economy.

In her 2023 State of the State Governor Hochul is proposing critical initiatives that will make a difference in the lives of all New Yorkers. The Cap-and-Invest Program, which was unveiled this week, will create an economywide Cap-and-Invest Program that establishes a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions, invests in programs that drive emissions reductions in an equitable manner prioritizing disadvantaged communities, limits costs to economically vulnerable households, and maintains the competitiveness of New York industries. In addition, Governor Hochul will propose legislation to create a universal Climate Action Rebate that is expected to drive more than $1 billion in future cap-and-invest proceeds to New Yorkers every year.

In addition to New York's own green investments, the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides tremendous opportunities to leverage state and private investments that have already been committed across the state. The IRA will reduce costs to New York to help meet the requirements of the Climate Act by approximately $70 billion through 2050 and is expected to provide unprecedented funding to reduce consumer energy costs, slash carbon emissions and pollution, ensure energy security and resilience, increase energy innovation and domestic manufacturing, and advance environmental justice.

New York State's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act), New York is on a path to achieve its mandated goal to reach economy-wide carbon neutrality, including a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040 with 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy, including more than $21 billion in 91 large-scale renewable projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and more than $1.2 billion in NY Green Bank commitments.

With the implementation of the Climate Act, a clean energy workforce will be in demand. Results from a 2021 Jobs Study issued by the New York State Climate Action Council's Just Transition Working Group, show that in the 21 growing sub-sectors total employment will increase by more than 60 percent from 2019 to 2030 - adding at least 211,000 new jobs in New York State. Additionally, clean energy jobs in New York State reached a record level of 165,000 workers at the end of 2021, helping to lead New York's COVID-19 economic recovery by recouping the clean energy jobs lost in 2020 and exceeding pre-COVID-19 clean energy employment levels by 1,300 jobs.