A recent CNN Money report highlights GE’s culture of innovation, including GE Transportation’s new Durathon battery.  The Durathon battery is the product of GE’s $150 million investment in next-generation batteries, and is scheduled for production later this year in Schenectady, New York.

Durathon is a sodium-metal halide battery for the telecommunications industry, uninterruptable power supply (UPS), and utilities markets. The Durathon battery acts as a backup power supply for industries that would suffer significantly from an interruption in power.

This week, GE Transportation participated in GSMA Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, Spain, showcasing the newly-developed Durathon Battery.  The Mobile World Congress is an important annual event in the telecommunications industry, and includes a thought leadership conference, awards ceremony, and the exhibition.

This week GE Energy Storage participated in the Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong to promote the Durathon battery in the telecom industry.

Durathon is changing the way telecom companies think about power and their operations. Imagine an energy backup source that can improve telecom service throughout the world. GE’s sodium metal halide batteries can enable more efficient telecom operations around the world, and their reliability and long life can help telecom companies expand service to customers everywhere. Durathon is ushering a new era with more efficient batteries that take up less space in urban centers.

Check out more information on Mobile Asia Congress here.

Learn more about the Durathon battery in telecom here.

 Get a behind the scenes look at the ground breaking, $100 million battery plant manufacturing project in Schenectady, New York. Read how building No. 66 is transformed from an aged warehouse to a modern-day high-tech facility. Find out what it takes to build the GE Energy Storage HQ.

Read the full article here

GE’s commitment to the Capital Region of New York State is as old as the company, which was founded in Schenectady in 1878. Niskayuna alone is home to some 1,900 GE jobs, and the company’s footprint in the region is about to get even larger, as GE Transportation plans to add several hundred new jobs at its new sodium battery manufacturing plant over the coming years, as was featured on the front page of last Sunday’s Albany Times Union.

The plant, which will produce GE’s state-of-the-art Durathon battery, is set to employ 350 new workers. The batteries themselves were developed at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna and benefited from a $100 million investment by GE, including $2.5 million from a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority grant. The new batteries last up to 10 times longer than traditional backup storage systems, need little maintenance, produce no toxic chemicals, are recyclable, and have remote-monitoring capabilities, making them a viable solution for a multitude of markets.