Press release:
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the New York Power Authority Board of Trustees approved economic development awards to three firms that will spur more than $508 million in capital investments and create 205 jobs.
Included among the approved items are low-cost hydropower allocations to Plug Power, a New York-headquartered hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer, for further development of its Genesee County site.
The NYPA board also approved low-cost hydropower allocations to facilitate an expansion in Niagara Falls for EnerPlate, an electroplating service provider for grid-scale battery systems, and CWT, a hatching eggs producer for the global poultry industry, expanding in Watertown.
"New York's growing clean energy infrastructure and local economic development go hand in hand," Governor Hochul said. "The items approved today by the NYPA Board of Trustees will create good-paying jobs and spark hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in communities in Western and Northern New York."
At today's meeting, the NYPA board approved a 50-megawatt (MW) low-cost Niagara hydropower allocation to Plug Power, located at the Genesee County's Science, Technology & Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP), to support the firm's $387 million green hydrogen fuel production expansion project that will lead to the creation of 19 additional jobs at the location. The firm is underway with its construction of the $290 million green hydrogen fuel production facility at the site that was announced by Governor Hochul in 2021. The expansion project will increase the capacity of the planned hydrogen production from an estimated 45 tons per day to 74 tons per day. The NYPA board also approved an additional 62 MW of High Load Factor power that NYPA will procure for Plug Power on the energy market.
The Power Authority supports Plug Power at three other locations: Slingerlands, which completed construction in January, Latham, and West Henrietta. In total, NYPA supports Plug Power with 272 MW of low-cost power, supporting more than 2,100 jobs throughout the state.
