(Yicai) April 18 -- Tesla plans to start building its next megafactory in Shanghai in May, which will produce powerful Megapack batteries for commercial and household use, and will be the US carmaker’s first energy-storage megafactory outside the US, online news outlet The Paper reported yesterday.

Mass production should start in the first-quarter next year, and the battery packs, which grid operators and utility firms use to store and distribute renewable energies more efficiently, will be sold worldwide, the report said. The new facility will be located next to Tesla’s existing Shanghai Gigafactory for electric cars in the city’s Lingang New Area.

Each Megapack can store over 3.9 megawatt hours of energy, which is enough to supply power to 3,600 households for one hour, the Austin-based firm said. More than 200 units will form an energy-storage power plant, which can store 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to satisfy demand for six hours in San Francisco.

According to earlier reports, once up and running, the Shanghai plant will initially produce 10,000 Megapacks a year with a combined energy storage capacity of 40 gigawatt hours.

Tesla started producing the Megapack and Powerwall in the US in 2015 as energy-storage solutions for business and households. More than 10 GWh of these batteries are now being used in over 65 countries and regions.

Tesla’s installed capacity of batteries more than doubled last year from the year before, surging by 125 percent, to 14.7 GWh, according to the firm’s latest earnings report. And profit from this segment almost quadrupled. The company is banking on its energy storage business to drive revenue growth this year.

Editor: Kim Taylor