Tesvolt starts commercial storage system production at gigafactory despite Covid-19

Tesvolt has managed to shrug off concerns about the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic to launch semi-automated production of commercial storage battery systems at its new gigafactory in Wittenberg, Germany.

The facility, which spans 12,000 square meters, will produce storage systems with capacities ranging from 9.6 kWh to the MW level for industrial and commercial clients.

The facility’s annual production capacity is currently set at 255 MWh, Tesvolt said on Wednesday. However, the company aims to gradually expand that to 1 GWh per year.

Tesvolt sees growing demand in spite of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Its order volumes have almost tripled from the same quarter a year earlier.

“The coronavirus crisis worries us as a manufacturer, but also as people,” said Daniel Hannemann, commercial director and co-founder of Tesvolt. “We are therefore happy and grateful that we were able to close the first quarter with good sales figures.”

The company has noted a particularly strong increase in demand for storage systems with emergency power functions, as well as for off-grid storage applications.

“We don’t know how demand will develop in the coronavirus crisis. We want to face the new challenges in close solidarity with our customers, coupled with creativity and flexibility,” said Hannemann.

The company has decided to move forward with production under strict safety precautions due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has said that it soon plans to introduce additional measures to protect its employees and customers.

“Colleagues in production continue to work in isolation from each other,” said Simon Schandert, technical director and co-founder of Tesvolt. “We are lucky that our battery cell supplier Samsung SDI continues to produce in Korea.”