New GE jobs loom; Hundreds of new workers for Schenectady predicted as part of today's announcement
BYLINE: By LARRY RULISON
SCHENECTADY - General Electric Co. will announce a major expansion at its GE Energy plant in downtown Schenectady today that will add hundreds of new jobs in the alternative-energy sector.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer is scheduled to be at the plant on River Road this morning to pledge $5 million from the state for capital expenditures such as renovation of buildings on the big industrial campus.
The expansion represents a reversal of fortune for GE's Schenectady operation, which employed 40,000 people during World War II. It now has just 3,700 workers after jobs were moved globally.
Schenectady County Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage credited the governor for bringing state resources to bear.
"Because of his efforts, hundreds of jobs will be coming to Schenectady County, and they could have gone anywhere," said Savage, calling the expected announcement "the most significant economic development news in Schenectady County in over 20 years."
Please see GE A6 Many of the workers in Schenectady make large turbines and generators used in traditional electric power plants.
But the historic facility also is the headquarters for GE Wind, which has been growing as developers and governments seek alternative ways to produce "clean" power that doesn't depend on natural gas or coal for fuel.
Today's announcement will focus on the alternative-energy sector, although government officials who will be there would not offer any advance specifics Tuesday about the exact number of jobs or whether the news would involve GE's wind turbine division, hoping to preserve some of the surprise.
A GE Energy spokesman in Schenectady could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
GE has been growing its job base in Schenectady this year. In July, the company said it was opening a wind turbine service center in Schenectady that would create about 150 jobs. Work at the center is expected to include new product development and marketing as well as servicing of large wind turbines, which GE ships from a manufacturing facility in Brazil through the Port of Albany to customers in the Northeast.
Although Savage and officials with the state declined to confirm in advance if the jobs would be with GE Wind, a Spitzer administration official who asked not to be named said the new positions would be for salaried workers like engineers and technicians.
"This project is reflective of the governor's commitment to the upstate economy and his view that every region of upstate New York has strengths that can become economic opportunities," the official said.
Economic development officials in the Capital Region have been focusing their efforts to replace old manufacturing jobs that have left the state with high-tech and energy research and development jobs.
Their hope is that manufactur ing will follow, with the prime success story being Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s plan to build a $3.2 billion computer chip factory in Saratoga County.
AMD has been doing R&D at the Albany NanoTech complex at the University at Albany for years, and GE, which remains one of the largest employers in the region, has been studying all types of alternative-energy technologies at its Global Research Center in Niskayuna, including wind, solar and fuel cells. A lot of alternative energy research also goes on at UAlbany and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.
Savage, the County Legislature chairwoman, said discussions with GE began in early summer.
Larry Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com