Boston, MA 04/24/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) is a $47 billion home improvement company operating about 1,830 stores in the U.S. Canada and Mexico. The company announced that it started using fuel cell technology to power about 157 of its lift trucks at the newly opened distribution center in Rome, Georgia.
The move to adopt the technology followed a successful pilot project in a number of its distribution centers such as in Connecticut and California.
The home improvement company, the second largest in the world, has good reasons for using fuel cell technology.
Reducing greenhouse emission
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) said it was using hydrogen fuel cell. The technology will help the company trim its greenhouse emission, improve efficiency and reduce electrical consumption.
It said lift trucks take about three minutes to recharge their fuel cell power. That compares with about 15 minutes needed to recharge batteries. Lowe’s used batteries to power the lifts before the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell. The company also said its trucks work optimally throughout unlike batteries that impact performance as power gets depleted.
Moreover, the company said that using fuel cell instead of batteries allows it to reduce electrical consumption.
Fuel cell technology
Fuel cell is a fairly new energy technology in the industrial space. However, the technology is gaining quick penetration in the industrial market as its awareness increases and many people come to learn about its benefits. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) is among the major industrial players that have adopted fuel cell in some of their facilities.
Besides the safety of the technology, fuel cell is clean, efficient and cheap in the long-run. It is thus appropriate for companies that seek to reduce their greenhouse footprint without hurting performance.
In conclusion
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) expects to reduce its spending in lift truck maintenance given that fuel cell requires less routine repairs compared to batteries that it previously used. Perhaps the company might adopt the technology in many other of its stores if it proves to be cost effective by most measures.
