Four Companies Announce Expansions, New Facilities

Expanding in Massachusetts:

Lithium ion battery maker Boston-Power Inc. has announced it is building its first U.S. battery manufacturing facility in Auburn, a move that is expected to create 600 jobs when completed. The federal stimulus act set aside nearly $2 billion for advance battery manufacturing facilities, and Boston Power has applied for a $100 million grant for the Auburn facilities. The state may contribute about $9 million, contingent on federal funding. The 450,000 SF facility will produce both its Sonata batteries for portable electronic devices as well as advance its push into the electric vehicle market.

Data storage giant EMC Corp. in Hopkinton has established a new research center in Cambridge, and has become a sponsor of the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  The company announced today it will establish EMC Research Cambridge, which will employ 11 people and coordinate efforts with company facilities in China and Santa Clara, California.

The Home Depot Corp. has chosen the Campanelli Business Park in Westfield to locate a $25 million, 657,000 SF distribution center. The new center will serve between 125 and 150 Home Depot stores in the Northeast.

State and academic officials gathered in Holyoke in June to sign a letter of intent to develop a plan for the Holyoke High-Performance Computing Center (HPCC) with industry executives from Accenture, EMC and Cisco. The collaboration aims to establish Massachusetts as a leader in the application and development of the next generation of computing technologies, ones that could lead to new ways of treating cancer and efficiently managing a "smart" electricity grid.