Investor Update

Jul 7, 2025

Hello and welcome to today's Plug Power Investor Update conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press Star zero on your telephone keypad. A question and answer session will follow a formal presentation and you may be placed in the question queue at any time by pressing Star 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to your host, Teal Hoyos, Vice President, Marketing and Communications. Please go ahead. Teal. Thank you. This call will include forward-looking statements about Plug Power Incorporated. These forward-looking statements will contain projections of Plug's future results of operations, or Plug's business or financial position, or other forward-looking statements. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act. These forward-looking statements are based upon the current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections, as well as the current beliefs and assumptions of Plug's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties and include, but are not limited to, statements about management's expectations regarding the final reconciliation legislation that passed both the Senate and the House. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in the statements. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, as well as the risks related to Plug's business in general, see Plug's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Risk Factors section of Plug's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements speak as of the day in which the statements are made, and we do not undertake or intend to update any forward-looking statements after this call or as a result of new information. The transcript of this call will be filed with the SEC, and a playback of this webcast will be available on the Plug Investor Relations website at www.ir.plugpower.com for a period of time following the call. I will now turn the call over to Plug's CEO, Andy Marsh. Thanks everyone for being here on such short notice. I want to take a few minutes to highlight what I see as one of the most meaningful policy wins for Plug Power and really, for the entire hydrogen fuel cell sector in the last several years. Let me start by saying we are in a much better place today than we were a year ago. Last year at this time, the policy outlook was unclear. Only three weeks ago, the House bill would have sunset key provisions under the Inflation Reduction Act. By the end of 2025, that would have cut off the runway just as the industry was getting airborne. The Senate draft was not much better. Frankly, the old version of Section 48 was challenging for fuel cells. That is why we at Plug Power worked hard alongside industry partners to help shape legislation that actually works. We are seeing the results in the final bill. Let's start with Section 48A. This one has not really gotten the attention it deserves. The bill delivers a full 30% investment tax credit for qualified fuel cell property that begins construction between 2026 and 2032. It does so without a zero-emission requirement, without restrictions on foreign component sourcing, and without prevailing wage or apprenticeship hurdles. This means the credit is not just there, it is actually accessible. We now have a clean, workable credit for fuel cells that mirrors what Section 48 used to be, but extends into the next decade. That matters because this clarity allows us to make long-term decisions with confidence. It allows our partners and customers to do the same. When we talk about building a sustainable hydrogen ecosystem, policy certainty like this is critical. Now let's talk about the hydrogen production in Section 45. The final legislation extends the production tax credit for clean hydrogen through the end of 2027. That is a big step forward from where we were even six months ago. Both direct pay and transferability are preserved, which keeps this credit viable and financeable. The most important detail, and I cannot emphasize this enough, is that the credit applies to projects that commence construction before 2028. That is a major win. This gives Plug Power the time and flexibility to sequence our hydrogen plant buildout more effectively. We are no longer forced into a race to break ground just to meet an arbitrary deadline. We can build smart, we can build strategically, and we can bring capacity online with market demand. This also matters to our customers, especially in our electrolyzer business. We've seen strong momentum in our electrolyzer business, and the 45D extension provides a clear path for customers who want to pair our technology with green hydrogen projects. Whether it's a 100 megawatt system or a gigawatt build system, having this commenced construction window gives them time to plan and gives us the opportunity to close big transformational deals. We've also seen strong customer interest across new sectors. The flexibility in the build is particularly valuable for opportunities in renewable natural gas, sustainable aviation fuel, and green ammonia. These are markets where the scale is real, the decarbonization pressure is growing, and the technology, our technology, is ready. Having a stable and extended 45D credit enables these projects to move from PowerPoint to execution. Our energy storage got a boost too with its own 30% ITC under 48A. Unlike fuel cells, storage still faces base and sourcing requirements tied to foreign entity content. Besides complexity, it's important to say this plainly: fuel cells are not subject to these restrictions. That's a key differentiator. It allows us to move faster and avoid some of the friction that others may encounter. Here is the bottom line. Bill gave us Plug the certainty and policy foundation we've been advocating for. We're better off than we were a year ago. Much better. We now have real tools in place to drive deployment across fuel cells, hydrogen production, electrolyzers, and we got a multi-year window to do it right. This is exactly the kind of momentum we needed, and we plan to take full advantage of it. Additionally, our balance sheet and cost structure are much better than we were at the end of 2024, which also makes it easier to take advantage of this opportunity. Sanjay is here with me, and we're now open for questions. Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to be placed in the question queue, please press star1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will appear to indicate your line is in the question queue. Our first question is coming from Colin Rusch from Oppenheimer. Your line is now live. Thanks so much guys. Congratulations on this. Can you talk a little bit about the queue of customers that were waiting for some clarity around some of these provisions and what you expect that pipeline to look like or evolve over the next several quarters as you think about potential safe harboring and deposits on some of the equipment. Yeah, I think what's really important, Colin, when it comes to fuel cells for our material handling business, is we're back to where we were at the end of the year where customers will be able to take this credit, you know, as they have done in the past. The issue of safe harboring we don't see as an issue when it comes to our fuel cell business. That's a real big deal. It has been and we'll see growth in material handling this year, but it certainly has been challenging explaining what was the present 48E since we had to link it directly to our green hydrogen plants. Now we can use green hydrogen, gray hydrogen, whatever hydrogen they want. We really do see this as a real boost to get material handling growing back at the pace it was previously. For our electrolyzer business, I know there are gigawatts of opportunities we have been engaged in, some with multinationals who were really trying to understand what 45D was going to be and folks involved with projects. I was in France with a big project for a renewable natural gas using carbon capture and green hydrogen for export. I can tell you this policy certainly makes projects like that much, much easier to execute on. Excellent. I guess from a financing perspective, can you talk a little bit about your ability to monetize these credits and how that changes some of your cash flow considerations over the next, call it, 18 months. I'm going to Paul. I didn't ask Paul on the call, but he's sitting here with me. I'm going to let him take that one. I think there's a couple different things. One is on the PTC credits, last year was the first year we recognized them. Establishing that and filing them and getting the cash this year as part of our tax filing is a good prelude to what I envision us being able to now, the credits for this year being able to sell off. We're working processes as we speak to monetize those more timely now that we've established that it's more clear. Then you've got the ITC credits, obviously on the equipment, which a lot of our customers would take advantage of. We have ITC, which we've monetized earlier this year on Georgia. We now are actively working on monetizing the ITC for the Louisiana plant. Where we can tap into the market and sell these credits off and monetize those more timely is the key for us. With every day and things like this bill, it makes it easier for us to be able to do that. Thanks so much, guys. I'll hop back in. Go ahead. I think it's fair to say, Paul, now that there's certainty, it makes life a lot easier for people looking to buy these tax credits. Yeah, and more attractive because there's a lot of appetite for credits. The fact that you have certainty and an abundance of opportunities makes it really exciting for participants to jump in. Excellent. I'll hop back in queue, guys. Thanks so much. Okay, thanks, Colin. Thank you. Next question is coming from Andrew Scott from Wealth Capital Partners. Your line is now live. Thanks for taking the question. I know you guys kind of touched on 45V briefly, but can you just talk about if you've heard any discussions on energy input into the facility and whether there'll be any stipulations around that? To be fair, Andrew, I have not. The discussions I've had have been more associated with the implications to the REC market when it comes to generation of hydrogen from electricity. During my discussions, we do think there'll be some pressures on the price of RECs, but we're in a good position in Texas, for example, which will be the next site we build where we have a 300 megawatt PPA at prices under $0.03 a kilowatt hour, which bring a REC with it. I think some of those items will balance themselves out. That's really been where we've had many of our discussions. Sanjay, you want to add anything? No, Andrew. I think as Andy highlighted, that's how we see it. We're a long REC in Texas. Really puts us in a good spot. REC is obviously a bit more of a liquid market, especially when you think about ERCOT, given the amount of renewable remains there. Really puts us in a good spot. As it relates to Georgia, as we've always said, we've been buying solar REC for that plant and it's been reasonably priced. We believe we can continue to do that. Again, input Andy, as you already said. We don't really see any major changes here. Feel like we're in a good spot given the PPA we have and given what we're doing in Georgia, given that those are the two heat plants we're really thinking about at this point in time. Great. Thank you for the details and I'll hop back in the queue. Okay, thanks, Andrew. Thank you. Next question is coming from Sameer Joshi, from H.C. Wainwright. Your line is now live. Hey, Andy. Hi, Sameer, how are you? How are you? Good, good. How are you? Good. Just a clarification on the 40. Good, good clarification on the 45B. You mentioned the credit is available to projects that commence before 2028. That is basically the production should start before January 1, 2028, right? Is that correct? No. Let me make sure I'm clear. I may not have been clear. 48D takes effect for projects that come in in 2026 through 2032. Yeah, that's a big deal. If Walmart, Sameer, in 2029 is doing fuel cells, which they will be doing, they'll be able to take a 30% tax credit on the fuel cell properties like they've done for the last 15 years. Understood? Yeah, it's a big deal, Sameer, because it makes it really simple. It has none of the complications that were built into 48A. You can use any kind of fuel and energy source. That is good. Just stepping back, this call is focused mainly on the federal incentives and the implications of those. You also may be enjoying some state level incentives or state level programs that may be in the works, if you can talk about that. Also internationally, are you exploring other opportunities around the world? Yeah. Sameer, I spent a lot of time internationally. I've been probably international in Europe for 20 of the last 30 days. Many of our customers that we're dealing with have won the hydrogen bank auctions, are receiving significant credits. We're seeing most of that activity. If you really look at it, it's UK, Spain, Germany and a bit in Finland where we're seeing the most active activity, where there's both the EU level support as well as in-country support. I suspect most of the deals that will close by the end of this year will be in that region. We talked about before, we had about $200 million of backlog for this year for our electrolyzer business. Probably 80% of that had to do with Europe. Sanjay's about, I think he's leaving tomorrow for Australia where again, the policy environment is very favorable for fuel cells. I think we're close to some pretty big deal. Maybe you want to talk about Australia and the ARENA funded. Yeah. Sameer, you might have seen this. There was actually a recent grant of $432 million for one particular project in Australia as a part of the ARENA funding. That actually closes out round one of that ARENA funding. Now in round two, they're talking about $1.2 billion. Obviously, there will be many applicants for that round two as well. The level of activity in Australia is pretty robust. There's a big hydrogen conference here in July, which is why I'm headed out there, as Andy said, tomorrow evening. We'll be there for about 10 days or so. There's a lot going on there. Andy, if I may also point out one other thing. Sameer, I think been on the road a decent amount just about 3 or 4 weeks ago, just came back from Central Asia as well in Uzbekistan where we did sign framework agreement with one of our strategic partners customers which could be a 2 gigawatt electrolyzer. They have actually even taken a step further in terms of getting further agreement with the government in terms of land acquisition and things like that. This will actually be one of the largest biorefinery plant with sustainable aviation fuel and urea. That's again another 2 gigawatts. In Australia, we're looking at 3.1 gigawatt. We have other projects that are totaling more than gigawatts. International activity, when you think Australia, Asia, PAC and Europe, the electrolyzer business is looking really, really good. Always hard to say exactly which quarter the new orders come in. Again, it's not about 2025 from a new bookings perspective for us, but you look 2026 and beyond, that business is looking really robust. One more point if I may add here, this is also helping some of the other sustainable fuel as Andy talked about renewable diesel opportunity where we can also leverage a lot of our skid manufacturing capabilities and things like that in our liquefaction business. Frankly, wouldn't be surprised if you start to hear again about some of the liquefied projects that have been on hold given the lack of clarity on the Section 45V but might actually come back on the table again and some level of activity unfolding on that front as well. Yes, no. This is really interesting. Looks like you have a short term, near term, two, three year boost from the current federal action and then you have many irons in the fire, so to speak, internationally. Good luck with that. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Samir. Thank you. As a reminder, that's Star one to be placed at the question queue. Our next question is coming from Dushyant Ailani from Jefferies. Your line is now live. Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. I just have one quick one. Sure. Good afternoon. Good afternoon to you as well, sir. Just, I guess going back to the previous question on the 48A, could you kind of talk a little bit about, maybe share some more, like what was in the conversations you're having with customers, whether it's new customers or old customers that are maybe holding back on hearing more on the guidance for the ITC coming back. Is it, I mean, like is it more, do you see more upside with new customers or is it going to be more like pedestal customers that are already with you guys. I think I would say both. Part of the problem with 48A, I think, was a combination of two factors, quite honestly. We were probably the only company in the industry that could even put together an offering that made sense because of our light renewable hydrogen, but the bureaucratic nature really made it cumbersome. I can tell you, even today I talked to a couple of our largest customers and they know how to do it now. You don't have to go through legal opinions. There doesn't have to be any questions. The regulations are very, very tight and essentially how they executed against what was the old investment tax credit, they can do the same thing now. I'll be honest with you, I was stunned that it came through as cleanly as we were hoping for. Our customers, our salespeople, our marketing people, and all our finance people now know the rules of the game. The question whether you can take the credit or not is really off the table because they know they've done it the same way for years and years. Thank you. Hope that helped. Yep. Thank you. Thank you once again. That's Star one to be placed into question queue. Our next question is coming from Chris Dendrinos from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now live. Yeah, thank you. I guess my question just relates to the planned build out of Texas and then maybe New York in the future. How are you thinking about that, call it self-generation build out? Does this still change that development strategy or the pace at which you go at? Thanks. Yeah. Chris, I don't feel rushed, but also the certainty for the next three plants for when you start looking at the equipment we own. We have most of our equity components that we've already spent. I think what you'll probably see is that probably don't change our plans. We're probably commencing construction of Texas before the year's end. If you go look at the annual meeting, I actually have a slide there that shows how Texas has been cleared. The electricity is there, we've connected the plant. The water for the water line for the electrolyzers is there. I can tell you it's also the fact that there's clarity makes it a lot easier to bring in a potential equity partner side by side with us in the plan. We have weekly meetings with the U.S. Department of Energy on the loan program. This just makes everything much, much easier. I think, Chris, I'll commence construction of one plant this year and probably there's a good possibility a second one in 2026 and maybe a third in 2027 depending upon how market demand is. Quite honestly, the Section 48A language is very, very helpful for market demand. Got it. I guess maybe as a follow up and apologize, this might be slightly off topic, but just extra color you can provide on the status of the U.S. Department of Energy loan and those conversations. Thanks. Sure. Chris, as I mentioned, we are literally meeting with the U.S. Department of Energy weekly. I'll be down there either this week or next week to meet with the folks at the U.S. Department of Energy. I think our focus will be on how to get the first three plants rolling in the next three years. Again, policy certainty helps the U.S. Department of Energy too, as they work through these decisions. It certainly makes the business case even stronger. Thank you. You're welcome, Chris. Thank you. Next question is coming from Bill Peterson from JPMorgan. Your line is now live. Hey Bill, how's it going? Good. Likewise. Maybe a question on first, try to understand the opportunity that the revised guidance unlocks versus if the guidance would have been the prior sort of house view of end of this year, what sort of opportunity over the next few years do you see this potentially unlocking in the case of your electrolyzer business or maybe how to frame it versus the original guidance which was of the next decade. Bill, I can tell you that I was in the board and management team. The focus would have been much more European, Australian oriented. Not that we're going to walk away, not that we're going to walk away from the United States. But you know, Bill, one of my struggles over the last two and a half years, or call it end of 2023, when there was before we had our plants online, we had a major crisis with hydrogen because of industrial gas companies, plants going down and the fact today we have 40 tons over our own control, that's made people more comfortable. Bill, the fact we had that material, the going concern at the same time, that made people hesitant. Then you had on top of it the fact that policy uncertainty put challenges that really put some strong headwinds in our material handling business. We've gotten to the point where they can see, our customers can see and future customers can see that hydrogen is available. We can kind of check that off as a headwind. We can check off our balance sheet stronger. We have financial projections which I think people can see that achieving gross margin neutral by the end of the year and being EBITDA positive by the end of next year. I think when I sit with our customers, they feel comfortable that we're financially viable. The biggest next issue was the policy challenges. I think now we can check that box off. I can tell you I was working on a large, large deal of material handling today with our sales team. This just adds, makes it, and I mean a big deal, not small deal. Not to sound like the president there, but it actually really will help unleash opportunities in material handling. I can tell you, I would say two or three of my visits in Europe were actually with customers looking to do deployments in the United States. The fact they don't have to just rush to an FID and break ground, which makes it even for large multinationals much harder. You start thinking about renewable natural gas and exporting that to Japan, there are people who can do that. Now that they have a little bit more time, it really makes those programs, when you're talking about 300 to 500 megawatt projects, it just makes those projects more viable. Yeah, thanks for that. I wanted to ask kind of more broadly, any potential implications or positive implications for the regional hydrogen hubs? There's been various reporting discussing maybe downsizing the three more blue focused. I think all the stakeholders or all seven are hoping to have maybe 45E at least through the decade so that you can get these projects started. Is there any chance that some of the more green focused projects can sneak in by this deadline or is it going to look still pretty challenging for some of these hydrogen hubs, just given the timing? I can tell you in West Virginia, we've been doing a lot of work and I think that one will have both elements of green and blue. I think even some of the more blue oriented projects, Bill, you'll have elements of green, especially if they're thinking through long term how they develop export markets for liquid fuels. Okay, thanks, Andy. Bill, I probably shouldn't say this. I've always had some, I've been very public about this. The hubs have never been a high priority for Plug Power. They happened, great, but we never thought they were going to be the driver for our business. Understood. More of a broader ecosystem. Question. Thanks. Hope they happen. Thank you. Next question today is coming from Chris Tsung from Wolfe Research. Your line is now live. Hey Andy, thanks for taking my question. Hey, Chris, just looking at your 8 gigawatt BDP detail list, just curious, does the passage of this bill grow this number or maybe firm up existing opportunities and can you frame when you can start generating revenue directly from this? I think you'll probably see it, Chris. Saying this is July 4th, I think you're talking first quarter 2026, and the list would likely grow. The list will grow. I would say that the list, things which we would have on low to medium probability probably move up to medium to slightly higher probability. All right, great. Chris, people really have missed in the press the importance of 48E. It's really one of the reasons I wanted to have the call today because everything's been about 45D and to us, 48E is probably equally as important because that's the one that's going to use the fuel. To be able to have people like Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot be able to take this credit and then take a look back. What is our competition in material handling? Our competition was lithium batteries, which are confronted with some really large tariff challenges from China. I have a tax credit. I've been exiting China for the last seven years. A very small percentage of my products actually use Chinese content. It really not only. It actually benefits us in another way in the fact that since we're very much American made for most of our product, it actually really helps separate us from some of the competitive technologies in a warehouse. Great. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe just on 45B, getting two more years compared to the House version, is there still a driver need to restart construction at Texas before year end or could we see that move to 2026, Chris? I'm targeting 2024, but it could be 2026, it could be 2027. I don't think it'll get there before then. That pressure of having to do something immediately, a good deal of that pressure is off. I'll turn it over. Thanks. All right, thanks, Chris. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to receive the update from us on the tax credit, specifically how it impacts Plug Power. We have our earnings call coming up in early August and we'll be providing you more insight in customer reactions in the funnel. I appreciate you taking the time and giving us a chance to clarify what it means to the company. Thank you and have a good week. Bye now. Thank you. That concludes today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.