Mitsubishi Power plans $490 million Savannah turbine expansion, 220-plus jobs

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will put $490 million into adding 450,000 square feet to its gas turbine factory near Pooler, Georgia, more floor space than the 430,000-square-foot plant that stands there today. The expansion of Savannah Machinery Works is expected to create more than 220 jobs, Mitsubishi Power Americas said in a statement on Oct. 23, issued alongside an announcement from Gov. Brian Kemp.

The site's own history gives those numbers a reference point. When Mitsubishi picked the Pooler megasite in September 2009, in the middle of the recession, it projected a $325 million investment and about 500 jobs, according to a WJCL timeline of the plant. The company repeated the 500-job figure at the facility's 2011 dedication. The new plan carries a larger investment and a hiring target of more than 220.

The company's statement says where the money goes: additional machining capacity, advanced manufacturing technologies, increased material flow efficiency and "future-ready production infrastructure." The added space will manufacture parts for gas turbines, according to the governor's office.

The two official accounts of who will be hired overlap but do not match. Mitsubishi lists opportunities across manufacturing, engineering, quality, maintenance, logistics and support functions. The governor's release names manufacturing, operations, heavy machinery and technician roles, and WSB-TV reported that recruitment targets technical maintenance among those categories.

The first labor demand will come from construction, not the factory floor. "When you think about a half-billion dollars going into one construction project, think about the labor that's going to be needed to build the building and the concrete that's going to be poured," Trip Tollison, president and chief executive of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, told WJCL. Local leaders said they hope to fill both the temporary construction jobs and the permanent positions with people who already live in the region, the station reported.

Tollison told WTOC the company reviewed many sites before choosing Pooler. Brandon Bodie, the plant's vice president, said its existing workforce and its port and rail access were the defining factors.

Mitsubishi expects the expanded facility to begin operating in early 2029, according to WTOC and WJCL. That lands inside the delivery window its parent is already selling into. Hiroshi Nishio, MHI's chief financial officer, said in August that turbines ordered in the most recent quarter carried delivery dates between 2028 and 2030, according to an Inspenet report drawing on Power Engineering. MHI's backlog of large gas turbines reached 35 gigawatts, up from 23 gigawatts a year earlier, and Mitsubishi Power has set a goal of doubling its gas turbine production capacity from 2024 levels, the same report said.

The company ties the demand to data centers. Citing McCoy Power Reports, Mitsubishi said U.S. demand for large gas turbines rose from 6.1 gigawatts in 2020 to nearly 40 gigawatts in 2025, and it estimates hyperscale data centers account for about 45% of that growth. Industry experts estimate 230 gigawatts will be added to the U.S. grid by 2030 to serve AI data centers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Some of that output stays in Georgia. Savannah Machinery Works assembled the first of three M501JAC turbines for Georgia Power's Plant Yates in 2025, a unit weighing nearly 350 tons that moved by rail and truck, WJCL reported. The three units are meant to add 1,300 megawatts of simple-cycle capacity.

Savannah sits within a wider buildout. Mitsubishi Power has expanded its Power Generation Services headquarters in Orlando, plans to open a new corporate headquarters in Lake Mary, Florida, in November, and has more expansions planned through 2028, the company said.

The project remains at the agreement stage. The company signed an expansion framework agreement with SEDA at the announcement, and Tollison said he looks forward to "a future groundbreaking ceremony to get the construction phase underway."