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I n the US, Plug Power reports that WinCo Foods will use 184 GenDrive ยฎ hydrogen fuel cell units to power the electric lift truck fleet at its grocery distribution center in Modesto, California. In addition, during Q1 Plug Power received three additional orders -for 315 units across three sites -from an unnamed customer, described as a 'global leader' in selling, marketing, and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare, and educational facilities.
The transaction with WinCo Foods marks Plug Power's first large grocery installation in California. WinCo will pay for the systems through a five-year lease with Somerset Capital Group, Plug Power's global customer lease provider for GenDrive units [FCB, December 2010].
Plug Power will provide WinCo with 93 Class 3 GenDrive units to operate pallet jacks, 38 Class 2 units to operate stand-up counterbalance trucks, and 53 Class 2 units to operate European-style moving mast lift trucks. WinCo moves produce, dry, and freezer goods at its 800 000 ft 2 (74 000 m 2 ) Modesto facility.
The GenDrive units being developed for WinCo's European-style moving mast lift trucks will offer Plug Power a route to expand into the European materials handling industry with a reliable hydrogen fuel cell product.
'California is an important state for Plug Power to aggressively prove the commercial viability of GenDrive, because of the high energy costs currently absorbed by our customers,' says Andy Marsh, CEO at Plug Power.
Meanwhile, the three follow-on orders were placed by one of North America's largest food distributors. The deal will deliver 160 GenDrive units to be operational in its Boston facility; 42 units for the Long Island, New York site; and 113 units for San Antonio, Texas. Each GenDrive-powered fleet comprises a mix of Class 1 units for sitdown counterbalanced trucks, Class 2 units for reach trucks, and Class 3 units for rider pallet jacks.
'When Plug Power made a decision to dedicate all resources to our GenDrive business, we did so because we believed in the solution and the economic benefits it brought to our customers,' says Marsh. 'We knew that once individual branches of large customers began to witness what GenDrive would do for its operations, word would spread, and the value Fuel Cells
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