Construction Under Way on $122 Million Battery Plant in Florida

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Construction is under way for a $122.8 million lithium-battery manufacturing plant to be built in Jacksonville, Florida, for Saft America Incorporated (Bagnolet, France).

Construction is well under way on a 143,500-square-foot building to be built on a 12-acre site in the Cecil Commerce Center, on the site of the former Cecil Field Military Base. Construction began in February this year, and overall completion is slated for late spring 2011. The new plant will manufacture lithium-ion cells, modules and battery packs for military, industrial and agricultural vehicles, thus boosting the U.S. manufacturing capacity for batteries and electric drive components, as well as electric vehicles. A proposed 800 jobs will be created by the end of 2017. The plant will be Saft's 16th wholly owned facility, and the company's sixth in the United States.

The company considered every state for the location of the plant, but narrowed the search to three--North Carolina, Georgia and Florida--before deciding to build in Florida. The plant was needed to provide the company with additional capacity to meet growing customer demands, particularly in renewable energy storage.

The Haskell Company (Jacksonville, Florida) was selected to provide design-build services, and J.S. Thomas Company Incorporated (Alpharetta, Georgia) was selected to provide mechanical services for the plant.

Saft received a $95.5 million grant from the Department of Energy for the facility last year. The company is investing $122.8 million in private capital investment for construction and equipment at the plant.

Saft America Incorporated employs 4,000 people worldwide and manufactures batteries for military vehicles, aviation, smart-grid support, broadband back-up power, and renewable energy storage. The company is considered a specialist in the design and manufacturing of high-tech batteries and is present in 18 countries, with 15 existing manufacturing sites worldwide.

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