Europe's first gigafactory for battery storage systems

Tesvolt, a manufacturer of energy storage systems for industry and commerce, is working to establish new production facilities for lithium storage systems with an annual production capacity of over one gigawatt hour (GWh). Tesvolt says that it is financing its multimillion-euro investment in the gigafactory without any outside funding, while the EU will lend its support merely to finance around 10% of the production line costs. Also, the new production line, warehouse and offices will be fully supplied with solar energy. The first phase of renovation yielding 12'000 square metre of floor space will be finished in June, and by the final phase, annual production will have reached over one GWh on an area of 20'000 square metre. By then, it is estimated that the number of employees will have increased from today’s 60 to between 100 and 120. “The world market for stationary energy storage systems has already reached a total capacity of 16 GWh. Europeans are calling for an end to harmful coal-fired power plants and diesel scandals. They want a future free of environmental disasters,” says Daniel Hannemann, who founded Tesvolt five years ago with partner Simon Schandert, in a press release. “We want the gigafactory to be our contribution to reaching this goal, making clean and affordable energy possible anywhere in the world.” The technology for the factory’s new semi-automated production line comes from teamtechnik, a mechanical engineering company mostly known for equipping automobile manufacturers with production and testing lines. Every battery module will be automatically tested for full functionality, and data from each process step will be recorded for seamless retracing capability.