Bloom Energy vs. Plug Power: Which Fuel Cell Stock Leads in 2026?

As countries across the globe continue to work to cut fossil-fuel dependence and curb power-sector emissions, the companies operating in the Zacks Alternate Energy- Other industry are gaining importance. Fuel-cell systems are emerging as a promising solution, generating electricity through a hydrogen-oxygen reaction that produces only water and heat. Scalable and emissions-free, they offer an efficient alternative to combustion-based power sources across applications.

Fuel cell systems are ideal for powering electric vehicles and supplying dependable backup energy to homes and industrial facilities. By producing clean electricity directly at the point of use, they also reduce reliance on traditional transmission and distribution networks. Let’s focus on Bloom Energy Corporation BE and Plug Power Inc. PLUG as both utilize the fuel-cell technology to generate clean electricity for their customers.

Bloom Energy uses solid-oxide fuel cell technology to provide clean, reliable power through its Energy Server platform. Its modular, on-site system minimizes grid losses, scales from kilowatts to megawatts and delivers round-the-clock electricity. With rising demand for decarbonization, grid resilience and hydrogen solutions, the company is well positioned for sustained revenue growth and margin expansion.

Plug Power provides clean energy through hydrogen fuel cell technology, with its GenDrive systems enhancing efficiency in material-handling equipment via fast refueling, longer run times and less downtime. Supported by an integrated product portfolio, the company is well placed to capitalize on logistics decarbonization and clean energy adoption, despite near-term profitability and execution hurdles.

With demand rising for always-on, reliable clean power from data centers and other industries, a closer look at Bloom Energy and Plug Power’s fundamentals is needed to assess which offers stronger growth potential at current levels.

BE & PLUG’s Earnings Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Bloom Energy’s earnings per share in 2026 has increased year-over-year by 78.75%. Long-term (three to five years) earnings growth per share is pegged at 25%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Plug Power’s earnings per share in 2026 has increased year-over-year by 55.7%.

Debt to Capital

The debt-to-capital of Bloom Energy currently stands at 66.43% compared with Plug Power’s 19.05%. This indicates Bloom Energy is using a higher percentage of debt to run its operations. The decline in long-term interest rates will be beneficial for both companies, as it will lower their capital servicing costs.

Valuation

Price-to-sales ratios are generally used for the valuation of companies like Bloom Energy and Plug Power, and this ratio indicates how much investors are willing to pay for the company’s sales.

At present, Price/ Sales F12M of Bloom Energy is 13.37X, and for Plug Power, it is 3.77X.

Return on Equity

Return on Equity (“ROE”) is an important measure of financial performance that indicates how efficiently a company converts shareholder equity into profits. It highlights management’s effectiveness in utilizing invested capital to grow earnings and enhance shareholder value.

BE’s current ROE is 29.39% compared with PLUG’s negative 105.98%.

Price Performance

Bloom Energy is benefiting from the rising demand for clean power from artificial intelligence-based data centers. In the past six months, Bloom Energy has gained 316% compared with Plug Power’s rally of 50.9%.

Price Performance (Six months)

Summing Up

Bloom Energy and Plug Power are investing in research and utilizing the fuel cell technology to provide reliable power to their customers.

Even though both companies presently have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). BE’s better movement in earnings estimates, stronger ROE and solid price performance make it a better choice than Plug Power.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.


 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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