GE charges up region with promise of $100M battery plant - The Business Review (Albany):

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The plant, which would open in would produce sodium-based battery storage systems for GE’ s (NYSE: GE) newly formed battery business. The companh is considering several sites in the Albany GE chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt said in announcintg the plans this week atin Niskayuna. GE this week submittef a request for federall stimulus money throughthe U.S. Departmenr of Energy. New York state will pay $15 million towarf the manufacturing center, including $12.5 million through Empir State Development’s Jobs Now program and $2.5 million through the New York Statw Research andDevelopment Authority.
GE alreadh has more than $150 million invested in advancedbattery technologies, said who noted that the planyt would be built with or withouyt federal stimulus money. “We will go forward, Immelt said. Gov. Davis Paterson, who joined Immelt in making the announcement, said GE’xs project fits into PresidentBarack Obama’sd push for clean-energy initiatives. “Keep in mind that the federap government is very interested in these typesof projects,” he said. The stimulus bill set asidse $2 billion for advanced battery technology.
The planrt would produce about 10 million cells when it is at full That amount translates to 900 megawatrt hours ofenergy storage, or enough energy storage to power 1,000 homes for a month or 1,0000 GE hybrid locomotives, GE officials said. The “advanced” batteryt business is expected togenerate $1 billionm over the next decade, Immelt said. “Wwe think the market will be huge,” he GE’s battery business fallss under and will serverthe rail, marine, telecommunications and energy including the new “smart grid” technology. GE has research and/or product divisions in all ofthose markets.
The first product from the batterhy facility willbe GE’s hybrid locomotive, which will be commercialized in 2010. “We see this as having a reall y broadapplication base,” Immely said. The company hopes to target both existingg and new customers inthe rail, mininv and shipping industries. The sodium batteries, which woulc be used in heavy-duty equipment, complement GE’s investmentt in lithium batteries, Immelt Since 2006, GE has investes about $70 million in A123 a Watertown, Mass.
, startup that creates lithium batteriedfor plug-in electric The last time Immelt made a big announcement at GE Global Research was in Januarh 2002, for GE’s $100 million expansion of the research In 2007, the company said it planned to add 500 jobs at its renewablre headquarters, located at GE Energy’s site in by 2011. ’s new $165 million manu-facturinf center in North Greenbush will add 100 new jobs to the The initiatives follow years of job cutsat GE’s energy planf in Schenectady. It once employexd more than 40,000 people and now has aboutf 3,000 workers.
Groundbreaking for the 200,000-square-footf battery manufacturing center is scheduled forthis