GE to invest $100 mn in Advanced Battery Plant; seeks DOE funding (Funding, New Prod. & Tech)

General Electric is investing $100 million to build a factory to manufacture high energy density batteries in upstate New York, and the company is hoping that DOE funding will accelerate this initiative. GE will submit the DOE application later this week, and company execs expect a decision by August. The plant will directly employ 350 people, and thousands more in the supply chain.

The new battery plant will eventually manufacture 10 million sodium-based chemistry battery cells annually, and GE will be using many of them on their hybrid locomotives as storage systems. As production ramps up, GE hopes to sell storage units to utilities to help them balance the load, and to companies making heavy service vehicles.

GE chose New York for the manufacturing facility because it's close to the company's research headquarters in Niskayuna, and the state sweetened the deal with an incentive package.

(Source: GE, Earth2Tech, May 12, 2009). Contact: Patrick Jarvis, Media, GE, (518) 387-6284, patrick.jarvis@ge.com, www.ge.com.