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Increasing Capacity
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Images Courtesy of SAFT
Saft Builds Florida Battery Facility, Starts Exporting Multinational battery maker Saft announced the grand opening of their Jacksonville, Florida factory in September 2011, described as “the world’s most advanced automated lithium-ion battery factory.” By December they were exporting the first cells rolling off the production line to European customers. The $191 million, 235,000-square-foot plant was partly financed by a $95.5 million federal grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) and financial incentives from the state of Florida and the city of Jacksonville of around $20 million. The DOE estimates that through the funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, factories like these will “help cut battery costs in half by 2013, making electric-drive vehicles much more affordable for Americans.” Once fully operational, Saft expects to have the capacity to supply batteries for more than 37,000 electric vehicles (370 megawatt hours) a year, while permanently employing nearly 280 people in the Florida factory. In contrast, Boston-Power (who lost a similar DOE bid for $100 million in Recovery funds to build a plant in Massachusetts) announced it was packing up and moving its manufacturing operations to China, around the same time of Saft’s grand opening in Jacksonville. Boston-Power will maintain its R&D and sales office Westborough, MA, and expects to produce 400 megawatt hours’ worth of batteries from China by the end of 2012.
Help cut battery costs in half by 2013, making electric-drive vehicles affordable for Americans
370 280
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megawatt Picture n° 0203 hours per year Calender, winder and slitting equipment
new Florida jobs
Grand Opening Sa� Jacksonville September 16th, 2011
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JAN/FEB 2012
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