Siemens plans to build a new, state-of-the-art wind service training facility in Orlando, Florida. Siemens is designing this new 40,000 square-foot center, which will be located close to the global headquarters of Siemens’ Energy Service division in Orlando, to be among the most advanced wind training facilities in the world.
Siemens’ initial investment will be approximately $7 million and the company plans to create 50 new full-time jobs and host approximately 2,400 trainees annually from the U.S. and the Americas. The training center, which is being built based on LEED Gold green-building standards, is scheduled to begin operations by this summer.
“As wind energy has become a mainstream source of power generation, the continued reliable and competitive performance of renewable energy is critically important to meeting the nation’s future energy demand,” said Randy Zwirn, CEO of Siemens Energy, Inc. and CEO of Siemens Energy’s global Service Division. “Siemens is poised to meet that demand and this new, advanced training facility in the U.S. will help ensure that our wind service technicians receive the highest standard of technical and safety training. In addition, the training center’s proximity to Siemens Energy’s Americas headquarters will allow us to leverage synergies and provide cross-functional support within our Service and Wind Divisions.”
The new wind training center will be one of four Siemens wind service training facilities globally, joining Brande, Denmark; Bremen, Germany; and Newcastle in the United Kingdom. The training center will provide technical and health and safety training for Siemens’ wind power service technicians, equipping them with the skills required to safely and expertly meet the service needs of the industry. It will offer a wide variety of qualification and training options covering all aspects relating to the technology and operational reliability.
The central feature of the new training center will be two full-size Siemens nacelles upon which wind service technicians will be trained to perform maintenance based on Siemens specifications. In addition, two 32-foot high climbing towers, ladder structures, electrical and hydraulic modules, and a maintenance crane will make training, safety and rescue simulations possible under realistic conditions. The Orlando location will also be designed to accommodate large classroom sizes.
In the past two years, Siemens global wind service business has grown from approximately 1,600 employees to well over 2,400 today and those numbers are expected to grow as more and more regions increase their commitment to building renewable energy resources to support the growing demand for clean energy around the globe.
In fiscal 2012 (ended September 30), the Energy Sector had revenues of EUR27.5 billion and received new orders totaling approximately EUR26.9 billion and posted a profit of EUR2.2 billion. On September 30, 2012, the Energy Sector had a work force of almost 86,000.
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