The deal—structured under an existing equipment supply agreement between the companies that runs through 2014—calls for Plug Power’s minimum purchase of 3,250 Ballard fuel cell stacks by the end of 2012, with power levels ranging from 1.5 kW to 20.0 kW each. Ballard anticipates that both the scale and cadence of associated product shipments will contribute to increased manufacturing efficiency and reduced fuel cell stack cost.

This agreement enables further fuel cell stack cost reductions, which will strengthen competitiveness of fuel cell solutions compared to lead acid batteries. Together with ongoing systems development work underway at Plug Power, this will impact growth in the North American market and in Europe, as well.

—John Sheridan, Ballard’s President and CEO

Ballard FCvelocity-9SSL fuel cell stacks are integrated by Plug Power into its line of GenDrive systems, which the company has designed to address the complete range of class-1, -2 and -3 forklift trucks for the North American market. Plug Power is also working to develop GenDrive systems with Ballard fuel cell stacks which can facilitate further reductions in system cost, expand the set of addressable applications and increase geographic reach.

Plug Power GenDrive systems using Ballard fuel cell stacks have been deployed with a number of leading North American distributors and manufacturers, including Whole Foods, BMW, Central Grocers, Coca-Cola, FedEx Freight, Sysco, Walmart Canada and Wegmans.