The Rochester area is set to gain more than 375 new jobs in the clean energy market with plans for a new hydrogen fuel cell "gigafactory."
Gigafactory is a term that refers to equipment used to produce batteries with gigawatt-hours of storage capacity.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Albany-area energy company, Plug Power, plans to bring the new plant to Rochester by mid-2021.
Schumer (D-NY), said he made the case for the company to bring the plant here after he spoke with Plug Power’s CEO Andy Marsh last month. Schumer said he talked about the Rochester region’s workforce along with a package being offered by New York state. Details of any incentives or more specifics of the facility have not been made available yet.
On its social media sites, Plug Power said, “The location for the Plug Power state-of-the-art Gigafactory has been selected! More details to come in the New Year.”
The company already has operations at Eastman Business Park. The company announced in February 2019that it would be expanding there and adding more than 80 jobs. At that time, Marsh told WXXI News that even after General Motors pulled its fuel cell research facility of Honeoye Falls several years ago, they left behind people very knowledgeable about that technology.
