The Carrefour Group, as a new GenDrive fuel cell customer in Europe, will purchase 57 Plug Power GenDrive units, to be deployed in STILL-brand class-2 and class-3 electric lift trucks at Carrefour’s brand new distribution center located in Vendin-lès-Béthune, France. A possibility of another 95 trucks is currently being considered. The Carrefour Group, the second-largest retailer in the world with more than 12,300 stores in 30 countries, seeks in new facilities, like Carrefour’s Vendin distribution center, through the use of hydrogen to avoid the high costs of building a battery room and related upgrades to electrical infrastructure, and instead apply that budget to more cost-effective hydrogen infrastructure. Carrefour’s hydrogen infrastructure will be completed in the coming months enabling the project to be commissioned in late 2016 and will be funded through the HyLIFT Europe project, co-financed by the FCH JU. The EHA is supporting the dissemination of the HyLIFT projects since 2010.
Plug Power’s GenDrive fuel cell solution displaces lead-acid batteries in electric lift trucks and enables customers to increase the productivity of their operations, while reducing operational costs. Plug Power’s product line of CE-certified GenDrive units are available today for use in European material handling customers. “It is clear to Plug Power that Carrefour is committed to innovation and looking for ways to operate responsibly and improve working conditions for employees and stakeholders,” said Andy Marsh, CEO of Plug Power. “Plug Power understands why Carrefour found our GenDrive fuel cell solutions in line with its philosophy to adopt clean energy in its daily operations and we look forward to helping this new customer grow its businesses.” For more info find the PR of Plug Power here.
STILL provides customized solutions for intralogistics worldwide implementing the intelligent management of material handling equipment, software and services. What the founder of the company Hans Still had initiated in 1920 with a great deal of creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and quality has quickly developed to be a globally renowned and strong brand. Today, over 8 000 qualified employees work in development, production, sales and service every day to meet the customer requirements around the world. The key to corporate success is a highly efficient product range scoping complete solutions especially designed for large and small companies in individual industries as well as computer-based software applications for logistics to provide effective warehouse and materials management. Please visit STILL on the Internet at www.still.de or on Facebookwww.facebook.com/still.