Saft is sending 20 Jacksonville-manufactured energy storage systems to Queensland, Australia over the next four years, the company announced in a news release Tuesday.
Saft, an industrial battery manufacturer, operates a factory at 13575 Waterworks St. at Cecil Commerce Center.
The purchase of Saft’s Intensium Mini lithium-ion energy storage systems was commissioned by Ergon Energy Network, a subsidiary of Energy Queensland Limited, owned by the Queensland government.
The project is the first for Saft in Australia. The system stores energy when spare capacity is available and returns it to the power grid at times of peak demand. That improves the quality of power delivery.
Saft’s batteries are known to operate in extreme temperatures, according to the release. The systems will be placed in the Outback, where temperatures can range from 32 to 114 degrees.
In May, Saft announced it would lay off 63 workers at its Jacksonville factory by the end of the year and 35 were cut in May.
In 2009, the city agreed to $5.3 million in city incentives for Saft if it created 279 full-time positions by the end of 2017. It hired 149. By May, it received $3.67 million of those incentives.
Last June, Saft reached a deal with the city to extend the deadline to create 279 jobs to December. Saft paid a $25,000 penalty to the city as a result.
At the height of the 2008 recession, Saft received $14.9 million in state financial incentives and received $95.5 million in federal stimulus from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to build the plant.