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Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh speaks back in March at a groundbreaking for Plug Power’s new hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing facility at the Vista Technology Campus in Slingerlands. Plug Power is building the world's largest green hydrogen plant in Denmark.

COLONIE — Latham fuel cell maker Plug Power has won an order to build the world's largest green hydrogen plant in Denmark, a huge win for the company, which wants to become the world's largest supplier of the renewable fuel.

On Monday, Plug Power announced it has struck a deal with a Swiss company called H2 Energy to equip the world's largest green hydrogen factory in Denmark.

Terms of the deal were not announced, but for Plug Power, which has yet to become profitable, the announcement itself was another demonstration that it is serious about becoming a major player in the hydrogen economy, which is much more advanced in Europe than the U.S.

“We see green hydrogen as the future and have made significant investments in green hydrogen, including in the construction of a gigafactory for electrolyzer production,” Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh said.

Marsh said the company won the order because of  "our operational readiness and manufacturing capacity."

The facility will be built near the coastal city of Esbjerg. The Danish government announced plans to build the green hydrogen factory last year in a deal with H2 Energy, which eventually selected Plug Power to supply the facility.

Plug Power is best known for making hydrogen-powered fuel cells, which emit only water vapor and warm air when producing electricity. The company currently focuses on fuel cells for forklift trucks but is eyeing other vehicles as well. It also supplies customers with hydrogen and hydrogen storage and fueling stations.

That's been one of the main beneficial attributes of hydrogen fuel cells – they can power vehicles without emitting any greenhouse gases that are linked to climate change.

While that's good, industrial hydrogen production isn't as climate-friendly because it involves deriving hydrogen from carbon-based methane gas.

There is a way, however, to make hydrogen from water using an electrolyzer powered by renewable energy such as electricity from wind or solar farms.

Marsh said that Plug Power will assemble the massive electrolyzer at its new plant in Rochester and ship it to Denmark by 2024, with full-scale production at the facility beginning in 2025. It will be powered by electricity from offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

Denmark, like other places in Europe, is many years ahead of the U.S. in deploying hydrogen-powered vehicles on its highways, which requires fueling stations to be built. H2 Energy is involved in that segment of the industry as well.

H2 Energy will own and operate the green hydrogen plant, which will make 100,000 metric tons of hydrogen annually – enough to supply fuel to keep 15,000 heavy-duty trucks moving around the country.

H2 Energy has a deal with Hyundai to build heavy-duty trucks that are powered by hydrogen fuel cells. And it also has a deal with Phillips 66 to build 250 hydrogen fuel stations in Denmark, Germany and Austria.

Larry Rulison has been a reporter for the Albany Times Union since 2005. Larry's reporting for the Times Union has won several awards for business and investigative journalism from the New York State Associated Press Association and the New York News Publishers Association. Contact him at 518-454-5504 or lrulison@timesunion.com.