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Only U.S. Ultracapacitor Manufacturer Opens New Oneonta Facility

By Brennan Smith
July 21, 2011 Updated Jul 22, 2011 at 12:00 AM EDT

Oneonta, NY (WBNG Binghamton) The country's only maker of special power-saving devices opens its new manufacturing center in Oneonta.

It's located at the former Soccer Hall of Fame.

Action News Reporter Brennan Smith talks to those who get a kick out of ultracapacitors.

They're small, don't take very long to charge and can be used to harness power in wind-turbines, hybrid buses, medical devices and LED lighting.

"People most commonly think about our product as a battery, but it's actually better than a battery in different ways. They don't store as much energy, but they're much more powerful. You can charge an ultracapacitor very rapidly. When's the last time you charged a battery in a few seconds?" said Ioxus President and CEO Mark McGough.

It takes just one minute to charge the Ioxus Hybrid capacitor.

That charge will last an hour.

The capacitor itself will last ten years.

This hybrid model is just one of many ultracapacitors Ioxus makes.

To build them, it requires skilled technicians, many of whom are from the area.

"We've already doubled the size of our workforce in the last six months, and we'll double again over the next twelve months," said McGough.

It's an endeavor that is putting more than 30 new employees to work.

The assembly line is already up and running on three shifts of production-men.

"We have emerged as a leader, New York State, in Clean-tech economy. This is a wonderful example of how investments by the government and private sector actually result in the emergence of new companies, but more importantly, the creation of jobs," said NYSERDA's President and CEO Frank Murray.

"We make about 20,000 pieces a month right now. We'll be doing more than 100,000 in the next twelve months, that's pieces per month," said McGough.

About a third of these pieces will be sold in America, a third in Europe and a third in Asia.

The company says it's not only outsourcing its product, but it's beating its foreign competitors, right here in what used to be the Soccer Hall of Fame.

Ioxus plans to hire thirty to forty more people to keep up with demand for its products.

That should take place sometime over the next 6 to 12 months.

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