One third of the lithium-ion battery packs produced at Tesla Motors’ Gigafactory in Nevada will be destined for the utility market.

Tesla’s utility storage division, Tesla Energy, has recently started shipping Powerwall, a battery pack for the home, and Powerpack, a commercial storage solution, to customers in US, Germany and Australia.

While no information has been released about the storage capacity size of the commercial-scale Powerpack orders, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates them to be megawatt hour solutions.

Meanwhile, orders for the 7-10kWh Powerwall have already been installed in homes around the world including the US, UK and Australia.

“We are still on track to produce 35GWh of [lithium ion] cells, and 50GWh of [battery] packs [by 2020],” Tesla’s Chief Technology Officer, JB Straubel, explained.

“15GWh of that [output] will be going to Tesla Energy and the rest to Model 3 and [Model S and Model X] vehicles,” he added.

The Gigafactory – which will be the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery plant when fully operational – is on track for an official unveiling this quarter, a megaproject in which Panasonic Corp has played a key role.

“Panasonic continues to be excellent partner in the project,” CEO Elon Musk said.

“[Panasonic] has given additional capital commitment to the [Gigafactory] and has also started hiring and training people. Things are going as well as they can,” Musk said today.

Benchmark expects Tesla to be manufacturing lithium-ion cells from scratch at the Gigafactory from 2018 onwards.

Gigafactory 1, Nevada, US: The biggest building footprint in the world at full capacity

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