The upstream segment of the US energy storage industry is expecting “more widespread and greater revenue declines” and bigger reductions in employment in the first quarter of 2020 than the downstream, a survey by the national Energy Storage Association (ESA) has found.
The COVID-19 crisis is bringing into the public eye the US’ dependency on importing goods, particularly batteries for advanced energy storage and electric vehicles, the CEO of a battery materials startup has said.
“We work hard every day to continue to push forward to the best of our ability, as we believe that we must do all that we can do to keep our projects on track and support the greater economy.”
Production of commercial energy storage systems has begun at Tesvolt’s new 255MWh annual capacity factory in Wittenberg, Germany, with staff working in isolation due to the risk of COVID-19 infection.
SimpliPhi Power closed down its manufacturing operations briefly due to the COVID-19 pandemic last week before reopening this week, having made adjustments to try and ensure the safety of workers.
US-headquartered energy storage manufacturing startup KORE Power has said that its supply partner in China has resumed operations “and is presently working to meet KORE Power’s customer orders”.
The impact on supply chains during China’s most intense period of stopping the coronavirus (COVID19) from spreading had been “substantial”, contributing to a “pretty tough time,” for Oregon, USA-headquartered energy storage system maker Powin Energy.
Manz AG, manufacturing equipment supplier, has signed off on a €20 million (US$21.83 million) deal with “high performance” battery maker AKASOL for planned ‘gigafactories’ in Germany and in the US.
Action must be taken to build up domestic battery manufacturing capacity in the U.S. to meet demand for industrial-scale energy storage systems, argues Lindsay Gorrill, CEO of KORE Power.
