Alevo Hiring First Production Workers By Mid-May
The much-discussed battery startup Alevo will be making its first hires for its new battery manufacturing plant in Concord, North Carolina, by the middle of May, according to recent reports.
This follows on the company apparently receiving more than 8,000 applications for various positions at the currently under development manufacturing facility. This first round of hiring is expected to see 50 production-floor employees added to the company’s numbers.
After this initial hiring round, there will then be an additional round — seeing 50–60 new employees added — for production + maintenance workers/technicians. That hiring round will go through the end of September. Altogether, the company is reportedly aiming to possess 300–500 employees for its first production line at the facility — which will be creating the 1 megawatt (MW) GridBank utility-scale batteries.
The Charlotte Business Journal provides some further information:
Currently, Alevo has a single agreement to provide energy services. That is a joint operational agreement with Customized Energy Solutions of Philadelphia. Alevo has agreed to produce 200 GridBank battery systems and handle grid-regulation services for CES to market among its 350 energy company customers in the US.
Chief marketing officer Scott Schotter says Alevo has several other contracts and agreements pending. Some, he says, are near closing and may be announced soon. Hiring in all divisions will start to pick up in late spring, vice president of human resources Tim Daiss and Schotter say. That is when the equipment will start arriving for the first manufacturing line for the GridBank battery.
The batteries, in 40-foot containers similar to truck and rail containers, will be built from the ground up at the site, although some parts will initially be manufactured elsewhere. The electrolyte that is at the heart of the battery will be shipped from Alevo’s headquarters and principal research facility in Switzerland. The Concord plant has space for 20 lines eventually, Schotter says. One will be built this year.
“We want to make sure everything is operating correctly before we start installing additional lines,” Schotter stated. “Everything around this first line is essentially a shakedown cruise.”
A second production line (reportedly) won’t be completed at least until sometime in 2016. By September, the facility should be producing roughly one GridBank per day, according to Schotter.
Image Credit: Alevo
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