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February 11, 2008

The Business Review – by Robin K. Cooper

Plug CEO Saillant preaches energy conservation at RPI conference

It would make more sense to reduce energy consumption at home than buy a fuel cell for the house. Roger Saillant, president and chief executive of the Latham-based Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq: PLUG) fuel cell company, said it won't be economical to buy a fuel cell system for the house for at least another five years.

Saillant, who plans to retire in April after seven years as Plug chief, said he's been motivated to protect the environment since the 1960s. He spoke to a room full of energy- and waste-conscious professors, students and visitors at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus Wednesday during a daylong "sustainability" conference.

A household fuel cell would cost about $40,000 today and it would lead to three or four costly and unexpected repairs each year, Saillant said. It won't be efficient to buy a fuel cell for household use until the cost to produce the fuel cell systems comes down.

The price tag for cars is even higher, Saillant said. Honda, one of Plug's partners, is planning to produce 50 fuel-cell powered vehicles by late this year or early next year that would cost about $500,000 apiece, Saillant estimated. Thoughts of sustainability and preparing to commercialize a new product is part of a course offered by Rensselaer assistant professor Susan Walsh Sanderson.

Sanderson, who listened to Saillant's luncheon talk on Wednesday, has invited the fuel cell chief to speak to her class on starting up a new venture that involves graduate and doctoral researchers for the first time this year. The class, offered through the Lally School of Management and Technology, includes students who are part of an interdisciplinary U.S. National Science Foundation funded study involving fuel cells.