Tesla has published a large number of job postings for their new Megapack factory in Lathrop, California as the company aims to ramp production at the facility to 40GWh per year.
The Megapack is Tesla’s industrial-scale battery energy storage system that can help stabilize the grid and prevent outages.
The new facility came out of nowhere with Tesla breaking ground in September last year. Since then the company has been largely quiet about the project, only commenting on the progress in their quarterly shareholder decks.
In the Q4 2021 and full year update the facility was still under construction, with Tesla mentioning they were “in the process of building a dedicated Megapack factory.”
Without an official announcement, construction appears to have been largely completed sometime between January and March. The first quarterly update of 2022 said they were now “in the process of ramping production.”
There appears to have been more progress recently as Tesla has just published a large number of job postings for the Megafactory on their Careers website.
There are currently 37 job postings based at the Megfactory in Lathrop. Not all of them actually appear to be for the Megafactory though as one posting is for a “Production Supervisor, Body in White,” a position typically reserved for their vehicle factories.
The majority of them are for Megapack production though as Micheal Snyder, Senior Director of Engineering and Construction, Energy Projects at Tesla shared on Linkedin the wide range of positions available.
“Positions span across test, controls, quality, equipment, and process engineering, as well as technicians, production associates, and technical project managers.”
In his post Snyder said these roles would be perfect for someone “looking for a new role in manufacturing a transformational product, and want to be a tangible part of the energy transition.”
He also highlighted the need for additional battery energy storage production capacity as California has been struggling through a heatwave that has strained the state’s grid. Powerwall owners have helped with the high levels of demand by selling energy stored in their units back to the grid at $2 per kW as part of the Virtual Power Plant (VPP).
As we have previously reported, Tesla is aiming to have around 20GWh of Megapack production capacity by the end of 2022, increasing that to nearly 50GWh by the end of 2023. With the new facility Tesla will also be introducing larger Megapacks for with storage capacity.
