FuelCellsWorks

LATHAM, N.Y — Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq:PLUG), a leader in providing clean, reliable energy solutions, today announces that its GenDrive™ fuel cell units are currently powering a fleet of The Raymond Corporation’s electric lift trucks at United Natural Foods, Inc.’s (Nasdaq:UNFI) Sarasota, Florida distribution center.

UNFI purchased 65 GenDrive fuel cell units on December 24, 2009. UNFI added 29 new Raymond lift trucks to its fleet, and will retrofit 36 existing Raymond lift trucks to run off the GenDrive fuel cells. The Raymond Corporation, and Authorized Raymond Sales and Service Center Abel Womack, provided fuel cell compatible Raymond Reach-Fork® trucks, pallet trucks, orderpickers and counterbalanced lift trucks to UNFI. The GenDrive units, manufactured at Plug Power’s Latham, NY, facility shipped in early June.

By powering the lift truck fleet at its 352,000 square-foot distribution center with Plug Power’s GenDrive fuel cell units, UNFI made a commitment to adopt a hydrogen economy at its facility. Productivity gains are expected at its Sarasota operation as lift trucks will be able to move product at a faster pace. By using GenDrive, battery droop is also eliminated. Material handling equipment operates at full performance as GenDrive continuously performs like a fully charged battery. 

Operational costs at the facility are expected to be reduced from the replacement of UNFI’s large battery infrastructure with two compact hydrogen dispensers placed in strategic locations throughout the facility. Operator and truck downtime are also anticipated to decrease as a result of GenDrive units being refueled with hydrogen in less than three minutes. 

“Plug Power’s GenDrive units deliver a value proposition to customers that will allow them to be more successful then their competitors,” said Andy Marsh, CEO at Plug Power. “UNFI, specifically, can leverage the significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to aid in its culture of social responsibility. The only by-products generated by the hydrogen-powered GenDrive unit are heat and water. For UNFI’s Sarasota facility, this is a carbon emission reduction of 132 metric tons annually, an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 35 automobiles.”

Tom Dziki, Senior Vice President of Sustainable Development for UNFI, commented, “This project is a natural extension of our strategy to create a socially responsible environment in all the communities we serve. Hydrogen fuel cells not only provide greater productivity and lower operating costs but will be an important component of a clean energy future and we are happy to be pioneering the use of this technology in Florida. Once implemented, this fuel cell project is expected to create annual energy savings of approximately 640,000 kilowatt hours.” The Sarasota facility, which employs approximately 160 associates, serves as a regional distribution hub for customers in the Southeastern United States.

“The close cooperation of The Raymond Corporation and Plug Power, along with Raymond Sales and Service Centers Abel Womack and Raymond Handling Consultants, helped ensure UNFI’s lift truck fleet was converted to hydrogen fuel cell-power and ready for operation when it needed it to be,” says Frank Devlin, segment manager for fuel cells at The Raymond Corporation.

About Plug Power Inc.

The architects of modern fuel cell technology, Plug Power revolutionized the industry with cost-effective power solutions that increase productivity, lower operating costs and reduce carbon footprints.  Long-standing relationships with industry leaders forged the path for our key accounts, including Wegmans, Whole Foods, and FedEx Freight.  With more than 1,000 units in the field and over 1.5 million hours of runtime, Plug Power manufactures tomorrow’s incumbent power solutions today. Visit us at www.plugpower.com.

About United Natural Foods

United Natural Foods, Inc. (http://www.unfi.com/) carries and distributes more than 60,000 products to more than 17,000 customer locations nationwide. The Company serves a wide variety of retail formats including conventional supermarket chains, natural product superstores, independent retail operators and the food service channel. United Natural Foods, Inc. was ranked by Forbes in 2005 as one of the “Best Managed Companies in America,” ranked by Fortune in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010 as one of its “Most Admired Companies,” winner of the Supermarket News 2008 Sustainability Excellence Award, and recognized by the Nutrition Business Journal for its 2009 Environment and Sustainability Award.

Raymond and Reach-Fork® are a registered trademark of The Raymond Corporation.

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (AIM/ASX: CFU) – a leading developer of high-efficiency low-emission electricity generation units for homes and other buildings – has been awarded the prestigious Innovation NRW.INVEST AWARD for 2010, by the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.

More than 11,000 foreign companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia are eligible for the NRW.INVEST awards. Each year three awards are presented, for outstanding achievements in the categories of Innovation, Expansion Investment and New Investment.

Ceramic Fuel Cells is honored to have received the 2010 award for Innovation. Last year’s winner of the Innovation award was the Canadian BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion.

Announcing the award at a ceremony in Dusseldorf, the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister for Economic Affairs Ms Christa Thoben said “To appreciate the importance of foreign investors for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, once a year we give the NRW.INVEST AWARD. Foreign company investment helps to accelerate the economic and cultural development of our state.”

“Fuel cells with high efficiency are a key technology of the future. Ceramic Fuel Cells, with its innovative products, contributes to a more efficient and cleaner energy supply in North Rhine-Westphalia”, added Petra Wassner, Managing Director of NRW.INVEST.

Ceramic Fuel Cells’ Managing Director Brendan Dow said: “It is a great thrill for Ceramic Fuel Cells to receive this award. It not only recognises the efforts of hundreds of people who have contributed to our development, from the CSIRO staff who were involved in the early technology breakthroughs, through to our current Australian and German staff, but it is also recognition of – we believe – the potential of our product in Europe and elsewhere to make a significant difference to electricity production and climate change.”

Speaking at the official awards ceremony, the Australian Ambassador to Germany, Mr Peter Tesch, said “I am convinced that Ceramic Fuel Cells will shape the world market and especially the German market of private energy supply.”

In October 2009 Ceramic Fuel Cells opened a high volume manufacturing plant in the Industriepark Oberbruch, 40 minutes’ drive from Dusseldorf in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. The plant is one of the first in the world for the volume production of solid oxide fuel cell stacks.

Ceramic Fuel Cells has secured orders for just under 50 BlueGen gas-to-electricity generators from major utilities and other foundation customers in Europe, Japan and Australia, including German utilities EWE, E.On Ruhrgas, Rheinenergie, Alliander and the German Gas Association.

About the size of a dishwasher, BlueGen uses patented fuel cell technology to convert natural gas into electricity and heat with very high efficiency. BlueGen units can generate electricity at a peak electrical efficiency of 60 percent, far higher than any other technology in the large global market for small scale electricity generation. When heat is recovered for hot water, total efficiency is up to 85 percent – twice as efficient as the current European power grid.

By generating power close to where it is used, Ceramic Fuel Cells’ products can meet the future demand for low emission electricity without the need for huge investments in electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Ceramic Fuel Cells is also developing fully integrated power and heating products with leading energy customers and appliance partners in Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

A mainland Chinese energy expert yesterday called on Taiwan and China to jointly develop hydrogen as a source of energy, the Central News Agency reported.

The expert, Tsinghua University professor Mao Zongqiang, made the remarks during the sixth cross-strait economic and cultural forum, jointly held by Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC). This year’s conference is held in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, also known as Canton.

Besides his job at the prestigious institute, Mao is also a member of the hydrogen energy committee of a premier Chinese renewable energy institute, as well as a hydrogen energy consultant with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

During his speech, Mao mentioned that Taiwan and China have already worked on certain aspects of hydrogen energy development. He mentioned that in the future, China and Taiwan could engage in more collaboration efforts.

He said China and Taiwan could team up to conduct hydrogen energy research for and find related applications.

For example, they could develop buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells, Mao said, adding that both sides could produce a prototype in five years and work toward its commercialization in ten years.

Hydrogen, which does not occur freely in nature, must be extracted from hydrogen-containing compounds such as fossil fuels and water. Using hydrogen as a source of energy is expected to result in a cleaner environment, as carbon-based energy currently in use releases too much greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the air.

According to Mao, hydrogen can be converted into electrical energy with more efficiency. A car powered by hydrogen fuel cells can achieve an efficiency rate of 30 percent, compared to the 13 percent for a car fueled by petroleum.

Mao was only one of a slew of experts sharing their insights into renewable energies during the conference. On its first day, Gao Hu, a “specially-invited expert,” also spoke on the development of new energies, Central News Agency reported.

According to CNA, a “specially-invited expert” is most likely a Chinese government official, who assumes the special title due to the sensitive nature of his or her job.

Connecticut is awarding $11.1 million to United Technologies Corp. in Hartford and to Proton Energy Systems in Wallingford to pursue cutting-edge energy research, authorities said Monday.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said the four grants are part of stimulus-backed funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to improve how the nation produces and consumes energy.

UTC research projects commanded the bulk of the award — more than $9 million, Rell said.

UTC got a $2,855,795 grant to develop a water-based heating, ventilation and air conditioning system that employs a novel, supersonic compressor.

The company, partnering with Pall Corp., Polymer Science Associates and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, also received $3,098,765 to explore using a liquid desiccant – material that takes moisture out of the air – and a vapor compression cycle for air conditioning systems primarily for hot, humid climates.

Finally, UTC’s Pratt & Whitney jet-engine division in East Hartford, collaborating with the University of Texas, Clipper Windpower and Sandia National Laboratories, received $3 million to develop a novel “flow battery” — a system that sends chemicals through the battery cell when power is needed. The setup is theoretically 10 times more powerful than previous types, cutting both the size and cost of such systems.

Proton Energy, working with Penn State University, received a $2,148,719 grant to devise an advanced energy storage device incorporating a fuel cell that — unlike most current fuel cells — does not require costly precious metals such as platinum.