From Financial Times:GE to build $100m battery factoryBy Justin...

From Financial Times:

GE to build $100m battery factory
By Justin Baer in New York

Published: May 12 2009 22:41 | Last updated: May 12 2009 22:41

General Electric will open a $100m factory in the US that will build energy-storage batteries used to help power a new generation of more efficient locomotives, power grids and other industrial gear.

The plant marks the latest step in GE’s efforts to profit from advancements in battery technologies, a centrepiece in chief executive Jeff Immelt’s push to capitalise on mounting demand for more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to produce, distribute and use energy. Mr Immelt predicted that annual sales at GE’s fledgling battery business would swell to $1bn within the next decade.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Energizer to buy Johnson brands - May-12“Batteries are a key technology in the 21st century,” he said on Tuesday.

GE expects to begin production at the facility, which will be located near its research centre in Niskayuna, New York, and employ 350 people, by mid-2011.

“We are making New York the global capital of the new clean energy economy,” said David Paterson, the state’s governor.

The company plans to apply to the US Department of Energy this week for federal stimulus money to help pay for construction costs, though Mr Immelt said GE would press ahead with its plans for the factory even the request is denied. It received a $15m grant from New York state.

In an interview, Mr Immelt said GE executives had observed the same economic “stabilisation” noted in recent weeks by many industrial companies.

“Things aren’t getting worse,” Mr Immelt said. “The credit markets are a lot better. That’s a foundation for a recovery.”

Commercial use of the sodium-based, high-energy density storage batteries will begin next year with the deployment of new hybrid locomotives produced by GE’s transportation division. The company said it has lined up launch customers in the mining, telecommunications and utility industries.

GE has also invested $70m in A123Systems, a startup that is developing lithium-based batteries used in plug-in electric automobiles and other hybrid vehicles. The conglomerate now owns more than 10 per cent of A123, which counts Chrysler and SAIC Motor among its customers. Mark Little, who heads GE’s research centre, is on the company’s board.

As sodium and lithium batteries advance and prove their worth in additional commercial applications, GE intends to develop new systems that blend the best of both technologies.

“When you look at the tech charts, there are two dimensions: power and duration, or storage,” Mr Immelt said. “If you can optimise those two things, then you have -- particularly in the transportation space -- the Holy Grail.”