Compact Power, a Troy, MI-based subsidiary of South Korean manufacturer LG Chem, will spend $303 million to build a new lithium-ion battery plant in the west Michigan city of Holland. The companies said the plant will break ground this summer and by 2013 will employ more than 400 people. LG Chem already supplies battery cells to GM for its Volt electric vehicle, which will go on sale in November, and to Hyundai-Kia. Part of the factory’s cost is covered by a $151.4 million grant from the Department of Energy. Once it reaches full production, the plant is expected to produce 15 million to 20 million battery cells per year, or enough to power between 15,000 and 250,000 vehicles.
Author: Howard Lovy
Howard Lovy is a veteran journalist who has focused primarily on technology, science and innovation during the past decade.
In 2001, he helped launch Small Times Magazine, a nanotech publication based in Ann Arbor, MI, where he built the freelance team and worked closely with writers to set the tone and style for an emerging sector that had never before been covered from a business perspective. Lovy's work at Small Times, and on one of the first nanotechnology-themed blogs, helped him earn a reputation for making complex subjects understandable, interesting, and even entertaining for a broad audience. It also earned him the 2004 Prize in Communication from the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank.
In his freelance work, Lovy covers nanotechnology in addition to technological innovation in Michigan with an emphasis on efforts to survive and retool in the state's post-automotive age. Lovy's work has appeared in many publications, including Wired News, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, The Scientist, the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, Michigan Messenger, and the Ann Arbor Chronicle.
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