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GE commits to battery factory (with photo gallery)
Heavy duty power units for electric trains, cars
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
By Michael Lamendola (Contact)
Gazette Reporter


NISKAYUNA — General Electric will build heavy duty sodium storage batteries in a $100 million factory in the Capital Region, creating 350 technical and support jobs, the company announced Tuesday during a news conference at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna.
GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said the facility will be in operation by 2011. He said the market for the batteries could reach $500 million in sales by 2015 and $1 billion shortly thereafter.
GE is using $15 million from the state and is seeking federal stimulus money toward construction of the factory. GE’s investment will be at least $85 million unless it gets the stimulus money, company officials said.
The batteries will power hybrid locomotives and passenger vehicles, be used in medical devices, and will balance electrical loads on the utility grid, among other applications, Immelt said. “For our rail and energy customers, this is a big statement of investment in these industries,” he said.
GE is looking at several sites in the region for the factory and will make an announcement within the month, Immelt said. The plant will be 210,000 square feet and be located on 10 acres.

Ray Gillen, chairman of the Metroplex Development Authority, said Schenectady County is competing for the site, along with other communities.
“We have been working on this very aggressively for six months and we have presented sites that work very effectively with GE. We have been responsive to the team at GE that is conducting the site process and we have presented shovel ready sites in the county that meet the company needs,” Gillen said.
GE already has several facilities in Schenectady County, including its renewable energy headquarters and turbine manufacturing facility along I-890 in Schenectady and Rotterdam, and its Global Research Center in Niskayuna.................>>>>>>>>>>.......http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/may/13/5-12-09_batteries/

It's a good thing that Schenectady and Rotterdam wouldn't give GE a tax break unless GE tore down the buildings so now they have to build new ones that we have to pay for.

Though I have reservations about the practice of spending public revenues to finance the business ventures of private entities, the GE project is one that will produce permanent and high paying jobs to those in the community.  There should be conditions and benchmarks tied to the award of any funding by Metroplex.  These should include a commitment by GE regarding the number of positions to be created and the minimum duration of operations in Schenectady County.

If Ray Gillen and the Metroplex Board are successful in their mission to forge an agreement with GE to construct the facility in Schenectady County and not "give away the house" in the process, I will applaud their efforts.  Perhaps the $1M loan to the owner of 411 State Street can be called for repayment so that the money can be used for this project.