江森自控电力解决方案部门正与威斯康辛大学的两个最大的校区开展合作项目，计划建立全州范围内的合作，发展储能技术研究。
依据上周三的声明，该合作伙伴关系预期将“在储能技术领域开展研究合作，使威斯康辛大学在未来成为储能技术的新兴领导者”。
声明还显示，江森自控关于威斯康辛大学的合作伙伴关系“将包含在威斯康辛大学Madison以及Milwaukee分校建立新的研究院和实验室”
Johnson Controls' power solutions business is working with the University of Wisconsin System and its two largest campuses on plans for a statewide partnership to advance research in energy storage technologies.
The partnership is expected to "foster collaborative research in energy storage that will further position Wisconsin as an emerging technology leader," according to a statement issued Tuesday.
The Johnson Controls-UW partnership "will include new research faculty and laboratory space at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee," the statement says.
Gov. Scott Walker will announce details of the partnership Thursday.
The partnership aligns with the Milwaukee 7 regional economic development group's goal to make the region a center for advanced battery research, development and manufacturing.
Plans for the collaboration were hinted at one day after Johnson Controls battery executives disclosed plans to invest in an Ohio plant to build advanced lead-acid batteries that can stop a car's engine while it is idling.
Johnson Controls and the UW campuses are already partners in the Wisconsin Energy Research Consortium, which aligns UW schools with Marquette University, Milwaukee School of Engineering and other state firms to advance research on a variety of energy fields.
Known for its lead-acid batteries sold to automakers and retailers, Johnson Controls' battery business wants to be known as more than a "black box company," said Alex Molinaroli, president of the power solutions business, which has built worldwide sales to $6 billion annually from $1 billion in 2000.
In Glendale, the company has expanded its technology center, and plans to double the size of its headquarters office space, expanding it from a two-story building that opened several years ago to a four-story building.
"We designed it to go up to four stories, but we didn't think we would need to expand it this quickly," Molinaroli said.
Fuel prices drive growth
Rising petroleum prices and regulation of greenhouse gases are pushing the drive to improve fuel economy, leading the auto industry to embrace the fuel savings generated by the advanced lead-acid batteries that turn the engine off when it's idling.
Johnson Controls is the leading manufacturer of the start-stop batteries through its Varta brand. The company produced 3 million of the batteries last year and is forecasting the global market will increase to 35 million batteries by 2015 and 90 million by 2020.
In a research note Tuesday, analysts at Deutsche Bank said the start-stop expansion alone could eventually add $1.2 billion in sales for the power solutions business, based on its $420 million investment in factories in Ohio and Europe.
As it assesses growth in the automotive sector, the company is finding that battery technologies are competing with one another. As a result, the start-stop batteries will replace conventional lead-acid batteries over time.
What's more, the company is forecasting that the popularity of the start-stop batteries will delay a widespread move by the auto industry toward hybrid and electric vehicles, said Mary Ann Wright, a Johnson Controls executive.
The company also is forecasting a global automotive battery market that will triple in the coming years, driven by the growing population in countries like China and India as well as moves to cut emissions.
On the hybrid business, Johnson Controls and its joint venture partner, Saft, are in the final stages of starting up a new lithium-ion battery factory in Holland, Mich., for hybrid vehicles.
Analysts at the conference peppered Johnson Controls executives with questions about the status of the Saft joint venture. The Glendale firm last month went to court to dissolve the venture because it limits Johnson Controls from participating in the energy storage market beyond the car industry.
The companies are in negotiations over a possible resolution, but Molinaroli said he could not give a time frame for when the matter would be resolved. The joint venture needs to either be repaired or ended, he said.
"It's very clear to us that we have to open ourselves to more markets and more technologies, and this agreement limits us," Molinaroli said.