Plug Power’s Barrow Green Light and the $142 Million Asset Sale That Keeps the Lights On

Plug Power advances Barrow Green Hydrogen project with 30MW plant and $142M asset sales, balancing operational gains against persistent cash burn and stock decline.

Plug Power has two stories running in parallel right now. One is about industrial progress: the final investment decision for the Barrow Green Hydrogen project in Cumbria, a 30?megawatt plant that will produce around 100 gigawatt?hours of green hydrogen annually. The other is about financial survival: a planned $142 million sale of assets to Stream Data Centers, alongside a $39 million tax?credit deal, to shore up a balance sheet still bleeding cash.

The Barrow milestone is real. Carlton Power and Schroders Greencoat are developing the site; Plug Power will supply six 5?MW PEM electrolysers. A long?term power purchase agreement with SEFE is in place, and Kimberly?Clark’s local factory — home to Andrex and Kleenex — will use the hydrogen to cut natural?gas consumption by up to 50%, reducing CO? emissions by an estimated 18,300 tonnes a year. The project is expected to create around 200 construction jobs and reach full commercial operation in 2028.

Yet on the stock market, this kind of operational progress has barely registered. Plug Power’s shares closed at €2.83 in European trading, down 13.24% for the week. Even after a 49.25% gain since the start of the year, the stock is lagging sector peers. Bloom Energy, for example, has ridden the AI data?centre wave with concrete deals for Oracle, while Plug Power remains largely tied to forklifts and electrolysers — segments that lack the premium attached to AI?infrastructure plays.

The market is drawing a sharp line. Wells Fargo raised its price target on the same day as the Barrow announcement, moving from $2.00 to $2.50, but kept a neutral rating. B. Riley was more optimistic, lifting its target to $5.00. Neither bank is ignoring the underlying issues: the company’s cash burn remains a major risk, and short sellers continue to pile on.

First?quarter results underscored the tension. Revenue climbed to $163.5 million, up 22.3% year?on?year and ahead of analyst forecasts. According to one regulatory filing, the GAAP net loss was $245.3 million; another financial report put the net loss at $109 million. Whatever the measure, profitability is still distant, though the direction of travel is improving. Gross margin swung from minus 55% to minus 13%, helped by cost cuts and higher demand from large customers such as Walmart.

Plug Power ended the quarter with $223.2 million in available liquidity and a global sales pipeline exceeding $2 billion. The asset sales — the $39 million in tax credits expected to close shortly and the $142 million Stream Data Centers deal due next month — should provide a much?needed cash injection. Management is targeting a positive adjusted EBITDA by the fourth quarter of 2026. The Barrow project will only become a true catalyst if it can deliver recurring revenue with better margins.

For now, the company is walking a tightrope: one foot in a concrete hydrogen project that proves its technology, the other in a series of asset disposals that buy it time. The market is watching to see which foot moves faster.