Siemens makes a major move in the market for energy systems powered by natural gas with the inauguration today of a new turbine plant in North Carolina, a key component of the company's manufacturing center for the Americas.

The addition of the recently completed 450,000-square-foot plant for making gas turbines rounds out Siemens' production site for heavy duty energy equipment in Charlotte. The gas turbine factory, which was built to the LEED-Gold standard, joins an electric generator and steam turbine plant and a LEED-Gold certified engineering facility at the center.

All told, slightly more than 1 million square feet of factory space is now based at the complex and makes good on a Siemens commitment to support cleaner energy generation, expand manufacturing in the U.S. and create more jobs. The effort represents a $350 million investment by the company, said Mark Pringle, director of operations for Siemens Energy Inc.

"What we're creating is an energy hub in Charlotte, North Carolina," said Pringle, who talked to me yesterday about the expanded facility.

Siemens is among the companies, like GE, that are betting big on a trend for increased use of natural gas for generating electricity and are ramping up production of the equipment that makes such power generation possible.

Up-to-date combined cycle plants that are fired by gas turbines can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 30 percent compared to aging coal-fired plants, Pringle noted.  

"At Siemens we're very bullish on the business and the combined cycle mode, we think, is going to be a solution around the world for a way to produce environmentally friendly power," he said.