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GE to reduces battery production!
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benny salami
January 20, 2015, 3:01pm Report to Moderator
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   More renaissance news! GE announced today that it will move a large portion of its Schenectady employees from the battery plant to  
turbines. Last year officials claimed that this business was going to grow in the future. Too bad for the employees that took pay cuts and early retirement for this new initiative.
Another major hit for the Schenectady employment picture which has been lied about for years. Schenectady County once led the country in machinists and industrial production. The demand for batteries never materialized as forecast. According to some GE insiders the entire battery plant may shut down in the near future. For now the jobs will be
transferred but long range who knows.
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bumblethru
January 20, 2015, 3:17pm Report to Moderator
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Hey............that's GE for ya!
told ya.........the economy sucks......EVERYWHERE!!!!
thank God we had obuma these last 8 years to boost the economy!
wall street made out fine....that's all that matters!


When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche


“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.”
Adolph Hitler
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benny salami
January 20, 2015, 3:44pm Report to Moderator
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   Sad day for Schenectady. All bets were placed on the battery plant and green technology. Workers made giveaways to make this happen. Read something about GE slashing retirees health benefits too which
is another whammy for our Schenectady seniors already living through a tax and crime hell. There is no demand. Simple and plain. Maybe Obama will return making another great speech on how we need to "make stuff" for the few true believers.
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bumblethru
January 20, 2015, 7:22pm Report to Moderator
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and this actually surprises WHO????
everybody knew this was coming.


When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche


“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.”
Adolph Hitler
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senders
January 21, 2015, 4:37am Report to Moderator
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Quoted Text
General Electric Co. says it is dialing down production and headcount at its Durathon battery plant in Schenectady in the next few months and moving a “significant portion” of  hourly plant workers at the plant to its steam turbine and generator operations nearby.

The move impacts roughly 400 jobs, although GE says there will be no layoffs.

The move appears to indicate GE has concerns about its energy storage enterprise, which had once been considered a $1 billion business only two years ago.

GE said in a statement Tuesday that the market for its batteries is still “evolving” and customers are still evaluating the technology.


Bill Acker, the executive director of NY-BEST, a statewide battery and energy storage consortium, said that GE’s decision should not be interpreted as the company abandoning battery technology.

Rather, he said that 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.

What we are seeing now, Acker said, is just a pause as companies like GE adjust their expectations of the growth of the battery market.

“We’re in this transition period to get the rules right to make this happen,” Acker said. “What you’re seeing is companies not wanting to get to far ahead of themselves.”

GE originally developed the sodium nickel batteries for use in locomotives but found a market for on-demand energy storage and backup power. Target customers were utilities, facilities managers, telecom companies and wind farm owners.

“GE is still committed to the energy storage business,” GE said in a statement. “Our goal is to build a long-term product and commercial strategy that better serves our customers’ evolving energy storage needs.”

GE invested heavily in the business, hiring 450 people and spending $170 million on the factory, which began production in 2011.

That was beyond GE’s initial plans for $100 million and 350 jobs.


GE emphasized Tuesday that it is not closing the battery plant, located in Building 66. The company has not been afraid of quickly pivot and close or scale down businesses when the market changes. GE previously shut down plans for a massive solar panel factory in Colorado a few years back.

On the flip side, Immelt has been pushing the company to quickly launch businesses based on technology coming out of its labs, although that new strategy, called FastWorks, has employed start-up principles using small pilot production facilities instead of large factories.

About 50 employees will remain at the factory long-term, with the first wave of 50 people moving to the steam turbine operations in Building 273 on Feb. 2.

Both buildings are located on GE’s sprawling downtown Schenectady campus, which is the headquarters for GE’s largest division, GE Power & Water.

“More will follow after that, but we don’t have exact numbers or timing on those yet,” GE spokesman Nik Noel said Tuesday.  “That transition will happen in phases over the coming weeks and is expected to be complete by the end of March.”

At one point, GE envisioned 450 workers as it decided to quickly ramp up the business, which serves industrial customers.

At the $100 million facility’s 2012 opening, GE CEO Jeff Immelt announced plans to spend another $70 million to expand production and add 100 workers to the initial 350 hires.

Immelt believed the business would reach $500 million in revenue by 2016 and $1 billion by 2020.

“We should all be disappointed if we don’t accomplish those goals,” Immelt told GE workers when he visited the 200,000 square-foot plant in July 2012.

The state and the county pledged $20 million to GE for the enterprise. Of that, $5 million came from the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, which issued bonds to raise the money.

“GE has exceeded both job and investment commitments related to the Building 66 project which transformed an empty warehouse into a state of the art 190,000 square foot manufacturing facility,” said Metroplex chairman Ray Gillen. “We appreciate  GE’s commitment to retain jobs in Schenectady.”

The battery plant’s initial customers included Megatron Federal, a South African company that signed a $60 million deal to use the batteries in telecom installations in Nigeria.

Another one was a Rochester company called Arista Power that agreed to buy Durathon batteries for the use in its own energy storage device.

Arista, however,  has been going through struggles and has been cutting staff and research spending lately.



funny math


...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......

The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.


STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS

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mikechristine1
January 21, 2015, 11:38am Report to Moderator
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Now the tax exemptions that the city/co/plex given to their billionaire political crony GE and paid for by the struggling homeowners in the city should be paid back to the homeowners.


Time for the D voice of POOP and his beloved mayor, co, and DEATH Ray to admit that their promises are just lies.


Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent.  
Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and
speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
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TakingItBack
January 21, 2015, 3:24pm Report to Moderator
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So do we get any taxes back on the $5 million that Metroplex bonded?  Looks like the 450 jobs happened, they just moved them to the Turbines.  So it is a net gain.  But if we bonded $5 million on the building improvements and then they are fully exempt then that is a problem from the gate.

The Schenectady City and Rotterdam GE sites are almost if not 100% tax exempt and the Niskayuna site is almost fully taxable.  Why??


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TIP TO NEW VISITORS TO THIS FORUM - To improve your blogging pleasure it is recommended to ignore (Through editing your prefere) the posts of the following bloggers - DemocraticVoiceofReason, Scotsgod08 and Smoking Bananas.  They continually go off topic, do not provide facts and make irrational remarks. If you do not believe me, this can be proven by their reputation scores or by a sampling of their posts.  
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joebxr
January 21, 2015, 4:03pm Report to Moderator

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Quoted from TakingItBack
...Niskayuna site is almost fully taxable.  Why??


If you are referring to KAPL,
"KAPL is operated for the Department of Energy by Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation."


JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!!  
JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!  
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senders
January 21, 2015, 4:30pm Report to Moderator
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GE is an arm of the government no matter how they act on the public stage......


...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......

The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.


STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS

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benny salami
January 22, 2015, 9:49am Report to Moderator
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Metrograft will NOT demand immediate repayment of the $5 MILLION in taxpayer money they gave GE. On top of State grants. Unbelievable and only in Schenectady County. A total
fleecing of the County taxpayers and the reason our County taxes are 4X higher than Saratoga County and 3X higher than Albany County. 50 jobs created with millions of taxpayer largess.
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TakingItBack
January 22, 2015, 11:05am Report to Moderator
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Quoted from joebxr


If you are referring to KAPL,
"KAPL is operated for the Department of Energy by Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation."


No I am talking about GE R&D in Niskayuna


Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid - John Wayne


TIP TO NEW VISITORS TO THIS FORUM - To improve your blogging pleasure it is recommended to ignore (Through editing your prefere) the posts of the following bloggers - DemocraticVoiceofReason, Scotsgod08 and Smoking Bananas.  They continually go off topic, do not provide facts and make irrational remarks. If you do not believe me, this can be proven by their reputation scores or by a sampling of their posts.  
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bumblethru
January 22, 2015, 3:06pm Report to Moderator
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was just talking to some folks who work there.....they are also being offered $30K to leave.
they would have the option to reapply again in 1 year.
Isn't this the same battery plant that obuma visited when it first opened???


When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche


“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.”
Adolph Hitler
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senders
January 22, 2015, 4:17pm Report to Moderator
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sh!t!!! I wish they would pay everyone $30,000 just to tolerate GE's games......


...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......

The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.


STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS

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bumblethru
February 3, 2015, 8:04pm Report to Moderator
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met a guy today that works/ed at the battery plant.
he said that the battery plant will stay open with 52 employees.
he said ge had to keep it open because of the federal grants they got.
he said that they did offer $30K to those who want to leave.
the ones that are left will go to building 273.


When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM
In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche


“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.”
Adolph Hitler
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RPEGCL
February 4, 2015, 9:59am Report to Moderator

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I was told by someone who worked there that the replacement job offer would be third shift with little or no chance of moving to days since they would be coming in to a new job with no seniority behind the employees who are already there. Still third shift is a job...I guess.

I was also told it was a real Sh-t storm over there. Battery parts back ordered or wrong when they arrived, and orders cancelled after major delays. I have heard that before about the turbine division too. Can't run a company on good wishes and smiles. Didn't GE formally make its own parts I wonder if that model would work better for them again, unless they don't want these divisions to survive?

Can anyone say "Tax Right Off".


RAH RAH Schenectady!!! WOO HOO GE!!! Yeah Federal tax credits/dollars? ALL OF IT GOING DOWN THE DRAIN....

Ooo 2012 http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/blog/2012/07/inside-ges-schenectady-battery-plant.html?page=all
BOO 2015 http://www.bizjournals.com/alb.....uction.html?page=all
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