Expansions at the energy manufacturer’s American facilities are intended to help meet surging customer demands for electricity equipment at home and abroad.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Energy manufacturing company GE Vernova Inc., is planning to invest nearly $600 million in its U.S. factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands around the world, the company said in a release.
The new investments—expected to create approximately 1,500 new U.S. jobs—are intended to help drive U.S. energy affordability, national security, and competitiveness, and to enable the American manufacturing footprint needed to support expanding global exports.
As worldwide energy needs are forecasted to double, the substantial investments are expected to help meet soaring customer demand, strengthen domestic supply chains, and continue developing cutting-edge American technology that helps power the world, according to the release.
“These investments represent our serious commitment and responsibility as the leading energy manufacturer in the United States to help meet America’s and the world’s accelerating energy demand,” said Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova, in the release. “These strategic investments and the jobs they create aim to both help our customers meet the doubling of demand and accelerate American innovation and technology development to boost the country’s energy security and global competitiveness.”
The company said the new investments are the first part of a larger $9 billion cumulative global capex and R&D investment plan through 2028 that was announced at the company’s Investor Update on December 10, 2024. Currently, GE Vernova has more than 18,000 workers across 50 states in the U.S., 18 U.S. manufacturing facilities, and its global headquarters in Massachusetts. The company’s technology reportedly helps produce approximately 25 percent of the world’s energy and is currently deployed in more than 140 countries.
Plans to expand gas turbine manufacturing
To support its previously announced plan to deliver up to 80 heavy-duty gas turbines per year, resulting in an additional 20GW of electricity globally, GE Vernova intends to invest “almost $300 million” in support of its Gas Power business and build-out of capacity for incremental heavy duty gas turbines. The new funding is projected to create more than 850 new jobs and support a range of new projects.
In Greenville, South Carolina, GE Vernova is planning to invest more than $160 million to support capacity growth, quality, industrialization and delivery efforts, and new testing capability with hydrogen fuel. These efforts are expected to create more than 650 new jobs, the company said.
In Schenectady, New York, GE Vernova is planning to hire for more than 100 new jobs in 2025. The company is also reportedly investing more than $50 million to support capacity growth and sustainability, industrialization, and quality efforts.
GE Vernova also said it is planning to invest nearly $50 million, combined, in its Parsippany, New Jersey, and Bangor, Maine, locations to support capacity growth and quality, industrialization, and delivery efforts.
Plans to expand grid solutions business
GE Vernova is planning to invest a total of nearly $20 million to expand capacity at its Grid Solutions facilities in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and Clearwater, Florida. Its Charleroi facility manufactures switchgear, and its Clearwater facility produces capacitors and instrument transformers.
The investments, expected to result in more than 260 new jobs at the two facilities, are viewed as crucial to meeting rising demand for critical high-voltage grid equipment. The majority of the investment is planned for the installation of new assets to create additional capacity and improve productivity, the company said.
More resources for nuclear business
GE Vernova’s nuclear business, GE Hitachi, plans to invest more than $50 million to enhance safety, quality, and productivity at its Wilmington, North Carolina factory and to launch its next generation nuclear fuel design. The design is described as critical to the company’s small modular reactor, the BWRX-300.
The BWRX-300 reactor is reported to be the only advanced design that includes an approved, existing fuel. “Expanding capacity of the fuel manufacturing operation further positions the BWRX-300 as the most ready-to-deploy advanced reactor on the market,” the release stated.
This investment also seeks to expand automation at the plant, which has been manufacturing fuel since 1968 and serves much of the U.S. boiling water reactor fleet. As such, the investment is said to strongly position the plant for the future as the demand for nuclear energy increases globally, particularly as several U.S. utilities restart retired plants.
More capacity for U.S. onshore wind factories
GE Vernova’s Wind segment is planning to invest nearly $100 million in its manufacturing facilities in Pensacola, Florida, Schenectady, New York, and Grand Forks, North Dakota, and its remanufacturing facilities in Amarillo, Texas.
“These continuing investments aim to strengthen the U.S. supply chain for renewable energy through factory upgrades and tooling and fixtures investments, while improving customer and employee experience through a new experience center in Pensacola and office renovations in Schenectady,” the company said in the release.
Expanding U.S. manufacturing capacity to support U.S. grid and demand for solar and energy storage
GE Vernova is planning to invest more than $10 million in its Pittsburgh facility to expand capabilities across its Electrification segment. This includes planned funding to house a new domestic manufacturing line for the company’s Flexinverter, described as a key technology for utility-scale solar and energy storage applications. The total investment is expected to create more than 270 new jobs, with the new line producing the 1500V and 2000V Flexinverters. This is expected to help enable utilities to smoothly connect renewable energy sources to the grid, ensuring stable and consistent energy supply for homes and businesses, the company said.
Expanding energy innovation research hub
At its Advanced Research Center in Niskayuna, New York, a major hub for energy technology and innovation, GE Vernova plans to invest almost $100 million in 2025. The investment is intended to strengthen the center’s electrification and carbon efforts, enable continued recruitment of top-tier talent, and push forward innovative technologies. These technologies are said to include direct air capture, alternative fuels for power generation, the grid of the future, critical infrastructure security, and more.
In partnership with New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Empire State Development, the State of New York is committing an additional $9.6 million in tax credits to the project. The company expects this investment will create 75 new research jobs. The company is also planning to fund generative artificial intelligence (AI) work in Niskayuna to the tune of $15 million in 2025.
GE Vernova said its new investments in U.S. facilities follow more than $167 million in funding in 2024 across a range of GE Vernova sites. The funding is reported to have created “more than 1,120 jobs to continue U.S. leadership in energy manufacturing for the nation and exports for the world.”