With STAMP pipeline in limbo, one tenant plows on, while another pauses

Edwards Vacuum is moving ahead with its plans for a $319 million manufacturing plant at the Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park, or STAMP, in the Town of Alabama.

But the timeline for Plug Power’s “green hydrogen” facility under development is unclear, for reasons unrelated to the business park’s infrastructure. Work on the plant has stopped as Plug Power deals with a cash crunch that has put a crimp in its expansion plans.

The pipeline permit issue has put a spotlight on development of STAMP, which sits between Buffalo and Rochester and is designed to attract large-scale, high-tech tenants. Genesee County officials have been focusing on the STAMP site as a key economic development initiative to bring good-paying jobs to a rural area a few miles north of the Thruway between Buffalo and Rochester.

The Tonawanda Seneca Nation had called for terminating a permit allowing construction of an industrial wastewater and sewage pipeline through the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in late April announced it was pulling the permit.

But even after that decision was announced, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Chuck Schumer announced Edwards Vacuum was starting construction of its dry pump manufacturing facility, which will serve the semiconductor industry.

Plug Power, the first tenant to start building a facility at STAMP, is facing different issues. The company, based in the Albany area, three years ago unveiled plans for a green hydrogen facility, now valued at $678 million, at STAMP.

Construction of that facility has been paused, said Robert Crossen, the Alabama town supervisor.

During a conference call with analysts in March, Paul Middleton, Plug Power’s chief financial officer, said the company had “slowed investment in the follow-on hydrogen facilities in Texas and New York until we find the right financing solution.”

Plug Power has just received conditional commitment of a loan guarantee of up to $1.66 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy. “The loan guarantee will prove instrumental to grow and scale not only Plug’s green hydrogen plant network, but the clean hydrogen industry in the United States,” said Andy Marsh, the company’s CEO.

Plug Power officials did not provide an update on plans for the facility at the STAMP site. In a shareholder newsletter released late last year, the company said it had planned to commission the STAMP plant this year and reach full production in 2025. With construction paused, it’s not clear what the timeline is now.

Plug Power in a statement said it “remains committed to the development of our STAMP plant, which had been expected to employ 87 people.

“Currently, our near-term emphasis is on the completion of our Louisiana plant, scheduled for the third quarter of this year, alongside the development of our Texas facility,” the company said. “We are committed to the build out of our green hydrogen network.”

The Genesee County Economic Development Center, which has spearheaded development of STAMP, referred questions about Plug Power’s project to the company.

Late last year, Plug Power faced questions about its ability to remain in business in the long run, after issuing a “going concern” notice in November. The company in its annual report in March said the company had put itself on firmer financial ground, and that “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern no longer exists.”

Edwards Vacuum is getting started on building its dry pump manufacturing facility at STAMP. The $127 million first phase will include manufacturing, warehouse and administrative facilities, with the capacity to make 10,000 dry pumps per year. Its pump-making capacity can eventually be doubled by adding more equipment within the facility, once customer demand calls for it.

Edwards hopes to start erecting steel for its 240,000-square-foot, all-electric plant by the end of June, with the goal of having the building enclosed by November, said Jeff Mickel, project manager.

Plans call for equipment installation to start in July 2025, with the goal of receiving a certificate of occupancy by late 2025. Edwards plans to ship its initial pumps to Korea in early 2026 for certification and customer approval, before regular production would get under way.

Some hiring for the Genesee County plant will happen this year, but that process will really ramp up in the second half of 2025, Mickel said. The focus of the hiring will be computer numerical control − or CNC − machine operators, who are in great demand from manufacturers. Edwards is working on plans to meet its training needs − including with local educational institutions − and taking steps to increase awareness of Edwards.

“While we are very well known in the industry, we’re not that well known from a general public point of view,” Mickel said.

Mickel said Edwards is in regular contact with the GCEDC about infrastructure at STAMP, including the wastewater pipeline issue. “I believe there’s a plan we’re OK with, and we’ll work through that,” he said.

Edwards is also working with National Grid on a electrical substation that will serve its plant, and will be connected to a substation that will serve the Plug Power facility.

Meanwhile, the GCEDC is trying to advance the development of infrastructure at STAMP, but faces opposition. The Tonawanda Seneca Nation recently said the STAMP project “poses an existential threat to the people and culture of the Nation,” as well as the wildlife, water and plants in the woods bordering the business park.

Chief Roger Hill of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation said the Fish and Wildlife Service “made the right decision” to terminate the pipeline permit, and called preventing construction of a pipeline through the refuge “an important step.”

The GCEDC said it was “in the process of submitting a new permit application to propose an open cut construction method which will avoid the type of incidents that resulted from the former method.”

But will that permit process delay development of STAMP’s infrastructure or affect how soon the plants could open?

“The GCEDC is looking at an alternative solution to the sanitary wastewater for the current tenants of the STAMP site that will enable their development and operations,” said Jim Krencik, a spokesman for the GCEDC.

Construction of the wastewater and sewer pipeline began in July 2023, using horizontal drilling beneath ground level. But two drilling accidents caused spills in the refuge.

The GCEDC said it was working with the towns of Oakfield and Alabama, along with the village of Oakfield and regulatory agencies, to build a type of pipeline called a force main.

“This project would result in capital improvements to the village of Oakfield wastewater treatment plant, including the installation of equipment to reduce the current phosphorus discharge into Oak Orchard Creek,” the GDEDC said.