CONCORD, N.C. (AP) – A start-up company is shutting down its North Carolina factory three years after announcing it would employ hundreds building batteries that help power companies save energy or shift to wind and solar power.
Alevo informed state officials Friday that it was immediately shutting down its factory inside a massive, former Philip Morris USA cigarette plant and filing for bankruptcy protection. The company said it was terminating 245 workers Friday and laying off the remaining 45 by the end of September.
The company said in 2014 it projected employing up to 2,500 workers by this year at its factory in Concord.
Alevo hoped to sell its box-car-sized batteries to electric grid operators and utilities, which now have to power fossil-fuel-powered plants up and down quickly to match electricity demand.
