A few years ago, when gasoline prices were in the stratosphere, when the oil and gas hydraulic drilling technique known as "fracking" was still getting a foothold prior to establishing itself as a key component of America's economic engine, the spotlight was on electric power and boosting the technology toward independence from fossil fuels. Batteries that delivered the electricity were high on innovator's radar screens. The renewable energy market was blossoming. Deep pockets rushed to invest.
Even President Barack Obama was on board. He visited Schenectady GE in 2011 for a tour of the sodium-ion battery plant. "'cause we think GE has something to teach businesses all across America."
At the time, company CEO Jeffrey Immelt gave a forecast that GE's battery plant would become a $1 billion business by 2020. But new hires and production ramp-ups never materialized. In a statement issued last week, GE explained the market for its batteries is still “evolving” and customers are still evaluating the technology.
According to published reports, GE opted to reassign 400 workers to other operations, leaving 50 to staff the battery facility, which suffered an equipment failure in September that brought manufacturing to a halt. IUE-CWA Local 301 Business Agent Brian Sullivan says "that's half-true." "Back on September 29th there were some equipment failures over there that pertain to the ovens that we use to heat the ceramics for the cells for the battery. The company invested several millions of dollars trying to repair those, they called in the manufacturers of the ovens, they rebuilt them to 100 percent capacity again. In lieu of that, based on the fact that most of the product goes through those ovens, we were unable to maintain production during that period, so there was a temporary lack of work issue for everybody in the plant, except for maintenance folks normally. Everybody else went on 'lack of work' in anticipation of returning to 100 percent capacity. Since that happened in September, those folks have still been out. They've been inactive. However they've been claiming unemployment and income extension aid benefits from the company in lieu of their paycheck. But that equipment is up and running, it's 100 percent again. The problem is now that we have an active facility and we're ready to go to work, we don't have any work to, we don't have any batteries to sell anybody."
Displaced battery plant employees are heading over to the turbine plant, which has seen an uptick in orders, and with that, a need for increased manpower. "The company was good enough to whittle away a package that we could all agree on. Bottom line is no one is going to be adversely affected as far as their job."
And GE isn't walking away from its Durathon batteries. Bill Acker, the executive director of NY-BEST, a statewide battery and energy storage consortium, who did not respond to a request for comment, told the Times Union that GE’s decision should not be interpreted as the company abandoning battery technology.
Rather, he told the paper that what we are seeing now is "just a pause" as new regulations being considered in New York and other states that would open up the market for the use of batteries on the electrical grid are still a year or more away from being put into place.
Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy says GE has been and will continue to be a key player as the city enjoys revitalization. He told WAMC the municipality is flexible when it comes to meeting GE's needs. "You know it's just the reality of manufacturing where things have shifted where they were very labor intensive, they've shifted to where they're much more capital intensive, so they're looking for workers who have a higher skill set and we want to be able to provide that. So over the long term again we want to be able to attract new product lines, new investment, and build upon the long and distinguished history that GE has had in the city of Schenectady."
As the GE battery plant sits idle, there have been technological breakthroughs in related technologies including solar cell development that have the potential to do more harm to sodium-ion programs and projects.
And it's no secret that every time fossil fuels get cheaper, citizen interest in alternative energy dwindles.
