Charging Up! Aquion Energy makes strides to open production facility

Aquion Energy made headlines last year when it leased space from RIDC in the former Sony manufacturing plant in Westmoreland County to manufacture its revolutionary batteries.

Techburgher got an exclusive behind-the scenes look of the progress to date. And according to Aquion VP of Manufacturing Don Humphreys, everything is right on track to get batteries coming off the production line by the end of this year.

Right on target, he says!

Based in Pittsburgh with manufacturing facilities in East Huntingdon, Twp., Westmoreland County, Aquion Energy designs and manufactures a battery based on research at Carnegie Mellon University. The company has developed a novel Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) battery that will enhance the electrical grid by providing flexible, emissions-free

capacity that optimizes existing generation assets and enables broad adoption of renewable energy technologies.

Aquion’s battery system will also address other energy storage application challenges. Beyond minimized cell and system costs and dramatic performance enhancements over incumbent technologies, the company is building batteries that are safe, environmentally benign and long lasting.

Under the leadership of CEO Scott Pearson, Aquion is producing modules that can be assembled into economically compelling electricity storage systems ranging from kW scale household products to hundreds of MW’s to manage energy use at the grid scale.

Low-volume production began in the summer of 2011 at its Lawrenceville research and development center, but work is now in full swing to fire up the production line in East Huntingdon.

A skeleton crew of 30 is working relentlessly to set up the production line, test troubleshoot and then troubleshoot some more!

Humphreys expects to have about 100 working as the plant comes fully on line with an expectation to employ upwards of 400 by 2015.

Learn more at aquionenergy.com.

For more bytes of the Pittsburgh region’s tech sector visit techburgher.com