$15.6 million Battery Innovation Center at Crane set to open

The building, which will house a nonprofit organization known as the Battery Innovation Center, has been under construction for a year. It contains laboratory equipment designed to attract universities, private businesses and defense players who need a place to work on new battery designs.

“We have a very strong cluster of companies, academic research and a very strong lab in the form of NSWC Crane,” said Charles LaSota, Battery Innovation Center president. “They needed an organization that could act as an independent third party to develop consortium-based research and development, and to provide a brick-and-mortar facility that all of them could leverage.”

Funding for the facility comes from economic development bonds from the Greene County Council. About half of the price tag went toward the building itself, with the rest dedicated to equipment that will allow for research and product development, according to LaSota.