Alevo Group, an energy service provider, announced that it will deploy and commission production lines at the Victory Industrial Park in Concord, North Carolina, for the manufacture of its innovative battery technology and GridBanks. Alevo, a vertically-integrated manufacturer with global operations, has purchased the 3.5 million square foot former Philip Morris cigarette manufacturing facility in Concord, North Carolina, for $68.5 million. The manufacturing facility, renamed Victory Industrial Park (VIP), joins established operations in Europe. Alevo plans to deploy and commission production lines at VIP commencing in 2015 which will produce 40 GridBanks per month by July 2015.
Duke Energy has a 38MW substation on the property and natural gas, water, sewer and fiber infrastructure all exceed Alevo Manufacturing’s requirements. The facility is in a preferred logistical location in the central eastern region of the US with rail on property and next to Interstate I-85. Alevo will manufacture its own batteries for its energy storage systems and co-locate with many of its partners to assemble finished goods.
The active ingredients of the Alevo cell are LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) and graphite. Unlike typical rechargeable lithium ion batteries, such as those found in most consumer electronics devices, the Alevo lithium cell contains a new inorganic electrolyte technology, which is non-flammable and non-volatile. The process of electrode manufacturing, cell assembly, cell drying and fill, formation and aging, GridBank packaging/assembly that will bring the Alevo Battery Technology to a high volume manufacturing system will be in place in early 2015.
The Alevo VIP manufacturing plant will create 500 jobs in the first 12 months, rising to 2,500 skilled jobs within three years as manufacturing lines are added, ultimately rising to 6,000 jobs if and when additional manufacturing elements are located at the plant. Staff will be sourced using combinations of online recruiting, specialty recruiting services, North Carolina Works-Career Center and Rowan Cabarrus Community College.
“Our current energy environment sees dependence on polluting fossil fuels from unstable states coupled with an aging grid infrastructure that is based on a 100 year old design. Energy waste is rampant with an estimated 30% of all generated electricity lost before consumption. Alevo is an Energy Service Provider that uses a combination of innovative battery technology and smart data analytics to reduce a substantial part of the 30% of generated electricity that is currently wasted through reducible inefficiencies,” said Jostein Eikeland, CEO Alevo Group SA.
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