Mass. firm seeks $100M in stimulus funds for lithium-ion plant
Boston-Power Inc., which now builds lithium-ion batteries in Taiwan, is seeking $100 million in federal stimulus funds to build a 455,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Massachusetts.
Of the $787 billion in federal stimulus funds approved by Congress, the U.S. has set aside $2 billion to build, from scratch, lithium-ion manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Government officials have said lithium-ion battery production, a rapidly improving technology, has been specifically targeted for stimultus dollars because it is critical to national security.
If the federal funds are approved, Massachusetts on Monday pledged to add $9 million in matching financing for the project, which would create about 600 jobs at the manufacturing facility, and some 2,000 indirect jobs -- workers building the plant and those hired at companies that will supply materials to it.
The manufacturing plant will be built in Auburn, Mass., close to Boston-Power's headquarters in Westborough, Mass., as well to the state's universities and an abundant workforce.
A Boston-Power spokesman said the spokesman hopes to get an answer on its request for federal stimulus funds within a month.
Boston-Power currently makes laptop batteries, and also plans to produce batteries for motor vehicles. Boston-Power had been planning to build a lithium-ion manufacturing plant in China, and but put those plans on hold once Congress approved the stimulus. In an interview earlier this year, Christina Lampe-Onnerud, Boston Power's CEO, said that with U.S. help, "in principal, we would be able to compete with leading Japanese manufacturers very, very quickly."
Boston-Power's laptop batteries are used by Hewlett-Packard Co., among other vendors. The company now produces its batteries in Taiwan under an agreement it has with a manufacturer there.
Computerworld
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
On Twitter now
battery
Powered by Twitter
Esther Schindler
If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly
claird
SVG a graphics format for 21st century
pasmith
Take Chrome OS for a test spin
Sandra Henry-Stocker
Solaris Tip: Have Your Files Changed Since Installation?
jfruh
Android fragments vs. the iPhone monolith
mikelgan
What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password
I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
- Dann
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
