A Swiss manufacturer is making utility-grade energy storage systems in a former cigarette plant near Charlotte. Alevo Group says it hopes to ramp up its operation in Concord to employ 500 people by the end of 2015 and as many as 2,500 over the next three years, reports the Charlotte Business Journal. The operation occupies a 2,100-acre site on U.S. Hwy. 29 that once hosted a Phillip Morris tobacco plant.

Alevo’s technology uses a battery system that can be charged and discharged by computer and is aimed at storing electric energy for the electricity grid. Executives told the Business Journal they expect the Concord operation to begin shipping in July.