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The needle-moving good news continues to flow for Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) stock.
Source: Halfpoint/ShutterStock.com
On June 3, Plug Power revealed that it would partner with French auto giant Renault to build vans propelled by hydrogen power.
On June 7, the U.S. government endorsed the use of hydrogen as a fuel and said that it would use Washington’s considerable power to make it more affordable.
The Department of Energy’s recent statement on hydrogen amounted to an unquallified endorsement of the fuel.
Naming hydrogen as one of the department’s “Energy Earthshots,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement, “The Energy Earthshots are an all-hands-on-deck call for innovation, collaboration and acceleration of our clean energy economy by tackling the toughest remaining barriers to quickly deploy emerging clean energy technologies at scale. ”
Speaking about the Biden administration’s “Hydrogen Shot” specifically, the secretary was quoted as saying, “Hydrogen Shot… sets an ambitious yet achievable cost target to accelerate innovations and spur demand of clean hydrogen. Clean hydrogen is a game changer. It will help decarbonize high-polluting heavy-duty and industrial sectors, while delivering good-paying clean energy jobs and realizing a net-zero economy by 2050.”
The department stated that the administration would seek to cut the cost of “green hydrogen” derived from renewable sources by 80%, causing demand for it to jump 500%. Further, the administration will look to boost the use of hydrogen through its infrastructure bill, the department reported.
With portions of its infrastructure proposal that it’s already released, the administration has shown that it’s ready to spend a great deal of money on the promotion of clean energy.
For example, it is looking to construct “500,000 new electric car chargers by 2030.”
Since Congressional Democrats will have difficulty passing an infrastructure bill without the GOP and Republicans do not want to look like they prevented America’s infrastructure from being enhanced, do think that Democrats and Republicans will reach an infrastructure deal and that the ultimate compromise will fund many of the administration’s priorities.
Additionally, even if no infrastructure deal is reached or if provisions favorable to hydrogen are not included in the final bill, the administration does have other tools to promote the fuel, such as making regulations more helpful. Additionally, Congress can include provisions favorable to green hydrogen in other bills.
As a national and global leader in green hydrogen, Plug Power is very well-positioned to benefit from Washington’s help.
In the past, I’ve cited support by the governments of the EU and of California for hydrogen as reasons to be bullish on PLUG stock.
Now that Washington is definitely on board with promoting hydrogen in a big way, I’m much more confident in the outlook of hydrogen in general and in Plug Power in particular.
Building Vans With Renault
Plug and Renault disclosed that their joint venture, called Hyvia, would look to start “building three types of fuel-cell vans at existing Renault plants in France by the end of this year,” Investor’s Business Daily reported on June 9.
Renault is a huge automaker that generated 43.47 billion EUR of sales last year. Consequently, I’m convinced that the French automaker can spend a great deal of money on developing and marketing the hydrogen vans that it’s building in partnership with Plug Power.
Also worth considering is that Renault can market the vans in the EU, which is in the process of enacting very favorable policies towards hydrogen.
Finally, Renault can use its vast connections with European businesses and dealers to sell the hydrogen vans.
The Bottom Line on PLUG Stock
The Biden administration’s tremendously favorable view towards hydrogen will ultimately help Plug Power in many ways. And with Renault’s help, Plug Power looks poised to make a great deal of money from selling hydrogen vehicles in Europe.
I continue to believe that, given the vast opportunities arising in hydrogen and Plug Power’s leadership position in the fuel, PLUG stock remains vastly undervalued.
On the date of publication, Larry Ramer held a long position in PLUG.
Larry Ramer has conducted research and written articles on U.S. stocks for 13 years. He has been employed by The Fly and Israel’s largest business newspaper, Globes. Larry began writing columns for InvestorPlace in 2015. Among his highly successful, contrarian picks have been GE, solar stocks, and Snap. You can reach him on StockTwits at @larryramer.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
