The Tesla Gigafactory is shown under construction outside Reno, Nevada May 9, 2015. Picture taken May 9, 2015
CARSON CITY — The first building phase of Tesla’s massive battery factory being constructed in Northern Nevada is nearly complete, a legislative panel was told Thursday.
But the 900,000-square-foot building represents just 14 percent of the total size of the factory at build-out.
“That building will be seven times larger once fully constructed,” Steve Hill, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, told members of the Legislative Commission.
The commission reviewed a quarterly report that Tesla Motors, an electric car manufacturing company headed by billionaire Elon Musk, is required to provide as part of a $1.3 billion package of tax incentives negotiated by Gov. Brian Sandoval and approved by lawmakers during a special legislative session in the fall to lure the factory to Nevada.
The next step will be bringing in and setting up manufacturing equipment.
“They built the building,” Hill said. “They will be starting to move machinery into that building in order to make batteries relatively soon.”
Hill said the project is progressing at a speed even faster than anticipated by Tesla and Panasonic, joint partners in the $5 billion plant rising from the desert in the sprawling Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center 20 miles east of Reno in Storey County.
Once completed, it will be the largest building in the world, with a footprint of 5.8 million square feet and two-stories of manufacturing space for a total of about 10 million square feet, Hill said.
And it could get even bigger, possibly doubling in size, following Tesla’s recent announcement of a new unit to produce stationary energy storage units for use in homes and businesses that can store solar-generated electricity for use when the sun goes down or doesn’t shine.
Hill noted that Musk commented on an earnings report conference call that the company was looking at possibly expanding the size of the Nevada plant by as much as 50 percent to 100 percent.
In the first quarter of 2015, Tesla spent $80 million on the project, bringing total investment since mid-October to $143 million. Hill said the company had made earlier investments before then that were not included in the total.
There were 320 construction workers employed at the site in the first quarter, and 70 percent of them were Nevadans, Hill said. Since October, 744 construction tradesmen have worked on the project, with 76 percent from Nevada.
Hill said his office has been working with the company, community college and university officials on developing curriculum and an educational path to equip students with the types of skills they will need for jobs in the advanced manufacturing field.
“They’re optimistic about Nevada being able to supply a good portion of their workforce at this point through the education system,” Hill said.
Source: Reviewjournal.com
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