Top German Battery Maker BMZ Quadrupling Production To 5 GWh Annually By 2020
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One of the top battery manufacturers in Germany (very possibly the top one), BMZ, will be quadrupling its production capacity to roughly 5 GWh of energy storage capacity annually by the year 2020, according to recent reports.
The increased production capacity will be achieved via a €45 million expansion of its Karlstein/Frankfurt manufacturing plant — one that’s already underway. According to the company, the reason for the expansion is to be in a good position come the anticipated global energy storage boom.
The expansion of the above-mentioned manufacturing plant will see total floor space increased to 55,000 m2 — allowing for the production of up to 80 million lithium-ion batteries a year (of varied sizes/capacities).
Once the expansion of the new BMZ manufacturing facility is completed, it will, reportedly, house up to 1,500 workers (so to speak) — marking a pretty substantial increase in worker capacity.
RenewEconomy provides some more information:
Last year, BMZ invested €14 million in research and development and turned over €300 million. The company expects to achieve an annual turnover of €500 million by 2020.
According to energy storage market expert Tobias Rothacher, the timing of the German battery maker’s expansion is spot on, with the latest figures from the KfW development bank showing the number of PV-battery system installations increased by 50% over the last year.
Rothacher noted that: “Over 20% of new PV systems under 30kWp now include batteries.”
In addition, of course, utility-scale energy storage installations are becoming increasingly common. As it stands, total storage capacity for primary control provision rose over 20-fold in Germany over the last 3 years.
Image Credit: BMZ
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