Mitsubishi to spend $490M, add 220 jobs in Georgia power turbine expansion
SAVANNAH ― Trace the power grid from the plug in your wall to the electricity’s source. There, deep inside a power plant, is a generating turbine.
And those 400-ton workhorses have never been in more demand.
A manufacturer of those turbines, Mitsubishi Power Systems, announced Friday an expansion of its Savannah facility that’s expected to double its production capacity. The factory on Georgia’s coast makes natural gas-powered turbines for electricity providers throughout the Western Hemisphere, including Georgia Power and its sister divisions with Southern Co., the U.S.’ second-largest utility by customer base.
Turbine manufacturers are ramping up production as utilities add infrastructure to meet the needs of the AI age. Industry experts estimate adding 230 gigawatts to the U.S. grid by 2030 — more than enough power to light up every home in America — to service the data centers used for artificial intelligence.
Georgia Power alone plans for 10 additional gigawatts, with 8 gigawatts dedicated to data center demand. Atlanta is the nation’s leading market for data center construction. Other parts of the state are also drawing hyperscaler projects, such as a 3.2-gigawatt OpenAI data center near Savannah and a 1.2-gigawatt Google facility outside Augusta.
“The demand for power is surging, and it doesn’t come at the flip of a switch,” said Brandon Bodie, Mitsubishi’s top executive at the Savannah facility. “It takes investment.”
Mitsubishi is pledging $490 million to add 450,000 square feet to its factory known as the Savannah Machinery Works. The company did not divulge an opening date target. The expansion will add 220 jobs to Mitsubishi’s local workforce.
Mitsubishi declined to give current staffing numbers, with a spokesperson saying an additional 220 workers constitutes a “significant” increase.
The Japanese company initially promised 500 jobs when it opened the facility in 2010.
The Savannah Machinery Works has the capacity to manufacture a dozen turbines annually, with each generating enough electricity to power 690,000 homes. One of the Georgia-made turbines was installed at Georgia Power’s Plant Yates in Newnan last year, and at least three other of the utility’s sites have turbines on order.
A spokesperson for Georgia Power said the utility is “proud that the next generation of turbines and equipment used in our power plants is being produced right here in Georgia, supporting high-quality jobs for our communities.”
Trip Tollison of the Savannah Economic Development Authority joked about the size of the turbines during Friday’s announcement, saying, “It’s not like going down to Home Depot to pick up a blower.”
Tollison and state officials began courting Mitsubishi for its expansion during a visit to Asia last year. The company considered building a new factory elsewhere in the U.S., such as Florida or Texas, before deciding instead to expand its existing facility in Savannah, Tollison said.
Mitsubishi’s U.S. headquarters are in Lake Mary, Florida, near Orlando.