G.E. Transportation was one of the bigger recipients of the new federal manufacturing tax credits announced this week. The company will received $25.5 million in credits to renovate its existing manufacturing facility in Upstate New York that will make advanced energy storage systems.
The award will leverage G.E.’s current efforts to build up a new product line that will serve the rail, marine, mining, telecommunications and utility sectors. The
Schenectady,
New York facility will create 350 new manufacturing jobs in
New York. The state has partnered with G.E. by pledging more than $15 million in incentives to benefit the facility’s development. The plant is scheduled to be fully operational in the middle of 2011.
At full capacity, G.E. said the plant could produce approximately 10 million cells capable of generating 900 megawatt-hours of energy per year – the equivalent of the battery power required for 45,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with an 80-mile range. The batteries, which are a critical piece of energy storage systems, will rely heavily on new materials, manufacturing technologies and intelligent control systems.
Schenectady facility is located near G.E.’s
Global Research laboratory in
Niskayuna, where advances to the battery chemistry were developed. G.E. has already invested more than $150 million in developing battery technologies, and the tax credit will supplement their investments.
