Q&A WITH JOHN ARENAS
FAIRFIELD TACKLES TOD
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JULY 9, 2018 | VOL. 54, No. 28
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All aboard? New rail line’s impact on businesses, home values uncertain
BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
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Joshua Liposky, associate director of battery systems (left) and Jay Shi, vice president of research and development at Cadenza Innovation, use a moisture-free glove box while working with battery materials in the company’s state-of-the-art R&D labs in Bethel.
Cadenza Innovation powering up with unique battery tech BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
C Cadenza Innovation Founder and CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud.
adenza Innovation is, if you’ll pardon the expression, surging. The Wilton-based startup, which provides energy storage solutions for license to lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery manufacturers, was selected in June from hundreds of international candidates as one of the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Technology Pioneers — the second time since 2010 that the same founding team has earned that award. Also last month, the firm was awarded funding for a demonstration project to further New York state’s clean energy goals
and support Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s energy storage target of 1500 megawatts in New York State by 2025. That project, expected to be completed by fall 2019, will consist of a stand-alone system that includes a rack-mounted 200kWh, 50kW battery storage unit featuring Cadenza’s Li-ion supercell technology, which company founder and CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud said is a unique design delivering high energy and improved safety at low cost. “What we’ve been doing is in response to people who say, ‘You can’t do that,’” Lampe-Onnerud told the Business Journal. “Our response is, ‘Yes, but if we » CADENZA
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he new, decades-in-the-making CTrail Hartford Line has won mostly rave reviews from legislators and commuters alike. But what — if anything — will its impact be on Fairfield County? The passenger rail line — which launched on June 16 and is the first to open for service in the state since 1990 — has multiple stations in central Connecticut along the Interstate 91 corridor connecting New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, Massachusetts. Although there are no Fairfield County stations on the line, its connections include the New Canaan and Danbury lines. Joseph McGee, vice president of public policy and programs at the Business Council of Fairfield County — and a longtime proponent of improving the state’s rail system and highways — said he believes that county towns with easy access to the new line will benefit. In addition to connections on the aforementioned lines, passengers arriving in New Haven can cross a platform for MetroNorth connections to Shore Line East, Stamford or New York City or, in reverse, to trains headed to Hartford and Springfield. “The line itself, which runs from New Haven to Springfield, should have a very positive effect on home values and economic development over time,” he said. “And it opens the center of the state to working in New Haven and Stamford, allowing people to get to those places in ways they couldn’t before. A train trip is so much more reliable than a highway trip.” Improved access to places such as Stamford and Bridgeport should help employers there, McGee added. “It’s going to take time,” he said, “but places that were too far to drive to for work in the past will no longer be so.” As for the Hartford Line’s » RAIL LINE
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