A Washington state battery systems manufacturer this month announced plans to build a fabrication, testing, and assembly facility for its marine power products.
Lavle, a joint venture between battery firm 3DOM and Ockerman Automation, will develop an existing building near Skagit Regional Airport — about 60 miles north of Seattle — and build a new facility adjacent to that property. The project is expected to create 50 new jobs.
The campus will put together what Lavle officials said will be the world’s first solid-electrolyte battery energy storage system for the marine market. It will also build and test engines, generators, drives, motors, and bridge and engineering control stations.
The facility’s battery cells will initially be imported from Japan, but Lavle hopes to establish manufacturing of separators and energy systems — and, eventually, complete powertrain and control systems — in the U.S.
Company officials called the project an important step toward “commercialization and deployment of Lavle’s SEB energy storage system.”
State officials, meanwhile, hailed the announcement’s impact on both the clean technology and maritime sectors in northwestern Washington.
“Lavle’s groundbreaking and unsurpassed R&D makes it the only U.S. company doing what they do in advancing battery storage and electric vessels,” John Sternlicht, the CEO of the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County, said in a statement.