A unique producer of lithium batteries headquartered in Tualatin recently revealed its plans for the future — creating cost effective battery energy storage systems for homes and other uses.
On Tuesday, July 16, QPO Energy and Meter opened its doors to give the public a look at its new 100,000-square-foot facility on Herman Road.
The new facility will produce lithium ion batteries that can be used as backup power sources for homes as well as providing power to those same homes when peak electrical charges are higher, thus helping to reduce monthly energy bills, according to Danny Lu, senior vice president at Powin. Powin was founded by Danny Lu’s father, Joseph Lu, in 1989 and is located just up the street from QPO Energy.
“These are the same batteries that go into large electric vehicles like trucks, buses, same form factor of cells,” Danny Lu said during a tour of QPO on Tuesday. “We're doing it for residential energy storage, but also to do contract manufacturing for large scale energy storage companies.”
The company is also expected to create local and national jobs. Joseph Lu told audience members his plan was to “get out of retirement and get back to work and start a new company.”
“You are witnessing a monumental event for the future of manufacturing taking place right here in Tualatin, Oregon,” Danny Lu said. “The goal GPO Energy and Meter is to not only distribute life changing technology to expand renewable energy across the nation, but also here to create 500 jobs in the USA.”
Dignitaries present during the opening festivities included U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden; Chen-Hsiang Yao, president of Yulon Motor; Daniel K.C. Chen, director general of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle; Cheryl Myers, Oregon’s deputy secretary of state; Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan; and Sophorn Cheang, director of Business Oregon.
Wyden said Lu’s company was exactly what federal legislators had hoped to create when they wrote the clean energy bill, adding that the overall goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 40% overall, 70% in the power sector, numbers that “are a pretty good start coming from Tualatin.”
When it comes to new technologies, Wyden said “the Pacific Northwest has the ability to lead the country."
Myers said it was her third time visiting the facility, calling it an “exciting vision for the future.”
“There's a saying that how you do anything is how you do everything and truly, Joseph (Lu), we're so happy you are enticed out of retirement to apply that principle yet once again,” said Myers. “As someone who is a long-term entrepreneur, it's going to be so wonderful to watch you grow from an Oregon small business to a medium and large sized business to provide those local jobs in the area and then to continue on.”
Cheang said just seeing the progress of what was once an empty warehouse was “radical.” She noted that Oregon is a leader when it comes to climate innovation.
“So, congratulations to Mr. Liu and to your entire team or your leadership, but your foresight for your innovation, and also the investment in Oregon. We're looking forward to the business (growing) to success, and most importantly looking forward to our continued partnerships with you and the team and creating the prosperity for Oregon with a cleaner and healthier future for Oregon.”
Danny Lu said mass production of the batteries also started on Tuesday, with the first batch set to be delivered to clients in Southern California. He said QPO Energy currently has around 40 employees, but once fully operational is expected to have more than 100 employees.
He pointed out that the fact such batteries are now being made in the USA is extremely unique, saying QPO is one of the first companies in the nation to manufacture batteries earmarked for homes. The new plant could produce 200,000 batteries each year.
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