Message #726 From:
TheMachine Date: April 3, 2009 08:53:17 PM
Siemens’ crisis response: A new ’green’ factory
ISTANBUL - Siemens Chief Executive Officer Peter Löscher
opened the company’s new factory in Gebze, southeast of Istanbul, on
Thursday with the words, "This is our answer to the crisis."
"We have done it in Turkey because you have earned it," Löscher said,
underscoring the country’s importance as a regional hub for Siemens, a
global electronics and electrical engineering company.
With
one-fourth of the Turkish population in school and 4 percent of the
country’s gross domestic product spent on education, Turkey shows great
promise for a successful future, Löscher said. "Turkish young people
are hungry and ready for challenges."
The factory opening took
place just 13 months after construction began in March 2008. The new
facility stretches across an area of 150,000 square meters and cost 100
million euros to build. Energy Minister Hilmi Güler, German Ambassador
to Ankara
Eckart Cuntz and Siemens’ CEO of Energy Wolfgang Dehen and Turkey CEO
Hüseyin Geliş joined Löscher in inaugurating the factory by pressing a
symbolic button.
A model ’green’ factory
Löscher
said the new site is a model "green" factory due to its energy
efficiency and environmentally friendly systems and design. He said it
fulfills the criteria for the United States’ benchmark Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certificate, achieving 25
percent energy savings through the use of highly efficient,
technological and innovative systems for lighting, heating, cooling and
ventilation. Highly efficient toilets, waterless urinals and the
collection and use of rainwater will reduce water consumption 50
percent.
The factory will employ about 2,000 workers and focus
its production on new energy technologies. Together with the company’s
other factory in Istanbul’s
Kartal region and its regional offices, it will bring Siemens’ Turkish
workforce to 6,000 people. Turkey CEO Geliş said the building of a new
factory in a time of economic crisis shows how important Turkey is to
the German company. "Twelve percent of Turkey’s energy demand is met by
Siemens technology," he said, adding that the company will continue its
growth in the region.
According to Dehen, three factors drove
the company to increase its investments in the energy sector and open
the new factory: demographic changes that will increase demand for
energy, particularly in Asia; the finite nature of fossil-fuel
resources, which require greater energy efficiency and optimization of
the energy mix; and the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions because
of climate change. "Energy has to be clean, sustainable and
affordable," Dehen said.
Energy Minister Güler said investments
in the energy sector have to continue despite the crisis. "We will
invest $120 million in this sector through 2010," he said, adding that
the coming years will be the age of hydrogen energy and that Turkey
will expand its focus on wind energy. "We already use Siemens turbines,
but I also propose that Siemens should start to produce turbines here
in Gebze," he said. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11360477.asp?scr=1
