New Facility Updates
SBE Inc. has recently won a matching grant of $9.1 million as the major piece of funding for an $18 million project under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electrical Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative, part of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to expand its electric car technology manufacturing. The manufacturing facility, dedicated to the transportation market, will be located in Barre, Vermont at the Wilson Industrial Park and will have capacity to produce Power Ring capacitors for over 100,000 plug-in hybrid and electric drive vehicles within 3 years. Such capacity will complement capacity at its current facility. As soon as spring allows, SBE will break ground and expects to move in to the facility in November 2010.
Joint Venture Signed and Land Purchased
March 11, 2010 by SBE team
Things are moving swiftly here in Barre, Vermont. Very important milestones were reached in the past two weeks for our new manufacturing facility construction project. After months of cooperative discussions, a joint venture agreement on owning the land and the building was signed between Lord & Lord and SBE Inc.
The following week, the joint venture bought the land. SBE Inc. also awarded the construction contract to E.F. Wall & Associates Inc., a Barre company led by Robert P. Lord Jr.
E. F. Wall has operated in Vermont and New Hampshire as a Construction Services firm since its founding in 1970, serving industrial, institutional and commercial clients. With staff of over 100 people, they have served as General Contractor/Construction Manager on numerous projects of a scope and scale similar to or larger than our new manufacturing facility. These include projects for industrial development corporations, publicly held and private manufacturing companies, colleges and universities, hospitals, elementary/high schools, military, state offices and other clients. The Northern Power Systems facility, a 110,000 feet building in the same industrial park (Wilson Industrial Park) was actually one of the projects E.F. Wall was responsible for in Central Vermont.
A tentative date of April 12th has been set for “ground breaking”.
Stay tuned: it will be an important event in Central Vermont!
Batch Ovens Delivered and Running
March 3, 2010 by SBE team
Three batch ovens have recently been delivered to SBE Inc., and are now running. The ovens have been custom designed for maximum temperature uniformity. They will be used at our current facility to cure the Film Winding Sections of SBE’s Power Ring Film Capacitors as we ramp up production. They will be then moved to our new facility, at which time our need will be greater and we will add additional ovens to facilitate our encapsulation needs.
The photo above is showing 225 Power Rings ready to be loaded for a 4-month life testing for our SBIR project.
In Barre Town Newsletter – February 2010
February 24, 2010 by SBE team
Barre Town wrote a detailed update on the infrastructure work which has been taking place at the Wilson Industrial Park, site of the new SBE manufacturing facility. We are sharing the key highlights here:
“After November, the Department of Public Works finished the electric, phone, and cable TV conduits to Bolster Road. Seven concrete electrical vaults were installed. Green Mountain Power started work towards extending 3-phase power down Bolster Road. In the Spring, it will pull its electric cables through the conduit. Also this Spring, the Department of Public Works must construct the gravel base of the industrial park road from Bolster Road to SBE’s driveway. The road will be gated and the Town will contract for road paving and stormwater retention pond construction.
The Town is also expected to close the real estate sale very soon with SBE. The Town received a $1 million Community Development Block Grant, most of which will be loaned to SBE, and the loan documents should be signed soon. The Town is also making plans, with Barre Area Development, to re-use the SBE loan money for a business revolving loan fund that would serve Barre Town and Barre City.”
