The UK’s Prince Charles visited the IT Sligo site yesterday on an unrelated visit. Image: IT Sligo facebook page / James Connolly / PicSell8
Trojan Battery, manufacturer of deep-cycle lead acid batteries, has announced that it is expanding its research and development capabilities with a new facility in Sligo, Ireland.
The facility will be known as Trojan Battery Ireland Ltd, and will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trojan Battery Co. The R&D centre will be charged with exploring advanced material additives and fundamental electrochemistry to help advance the company’s storage technology. The company states that it hopes the R&D centre will help it introduce “ground-breaking advancements” to the market quicker.
“Establishing the Sligo facility is a key step in expanding Trojan’s R&D activities, and will strengthen our ability to remain on the cutting edge of battery technology research”,” said Gordon Beckley, senior vice president of engineering and quality assurance for Trojan Battery.
Beckley continued: ““By having a research facility separate from any of Trojan’’s manufacturing plants, allows the Sligo engineering team to remain focused on true research and advanced development, while not being pulled into manufacturing continuous improvement projects. This independence is important as technology innovation plays a larger role in our long term success.”
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Trojan Battery has employed two dedicated research scientists to manage various projects at the Sligo R&D factory.
In an interview with PV-Tech Storage at last year’s Intersolar Europe trade show, the battery marker claimed that its newly-developed ‘Smart Carbon’ technology could help improve the cycle life of lead acid batteries by as much as 15%, of particular interest for partial state of charging applications typically required by renewables.
Trojan expects the location of the R&D facility to help expand its European OEM business, as well as provide better support for its European customers.
The new R&D facility will be located on the campus of the Institute of Technology in Sligo (IT Sligo). Niall McEvoy, head of innovation at IT Sligo welcomed the addition of Trojan Battery, saying that its residency would enable it access to “some of the world’s most advanced R&D capabilities available”.
Trojan’s Smart Carbon batteries. Image: Trojan.
