By Kari Williamson

The facility is Saft’s 16th worldwide, and features a 1 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop system.

Saft has received incentives from the State of Florida and the City of Jacksonville to build the plant, and the construction of the 235,000 ft2 facility was further funded by a US$95.5 million Federal grant from the Department of Energy (DoE) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

John Searle, Saft’s CEO, says: “I am delighted that our most advanced facility ever is now ready to serve our customers who are demanding ever higher performance energy storage solutions. Saft’s strategy is to actively address these new opportunities with our latest generation lithium-ion technology.”

The battery production plant will bring 300 jobs to Jacksonville.