Specifically, Genco will use the award, made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to purchase 136 GenDrive fuel-cell power units from Plug Power Inc. One-hundred of those units are designed for class-3 pallet jacks, and 36 for class-2 standup reach trucks.
Genco will provide Wegmans with the units, allowing it to power Crown lift trucks provided by Lift Inc. in its Pottsville, Pa., facility. Genco will deliver fuel-cell units to other Wegmans distribution facilities in multiple phases through 2012. The first phase includes a 59-unit fleet conversion of Wegman’s produce building.
Plug Power expects the use of fuel-cell power in the produce building to reduce Wegmans’ carbon emissions in an amount equivalent to removing 134 cars off the road each year. Over the lifetime of the project, more than 4 million kWh of energy will be offset, Plug Power adds.
