This morning, Brandy McGraw gave me a personal tour of the largest wind turbine manufacturing facility in North America, which is located on Scenic Highway in Pensacola. McGraw is the site director of the plant that has manufactured nearly 500 repower turbines since 2024.
With the national demand for more energy, GE Vernova puts Pensacola at the forefront of meeting that demand.
This past March, GE Vernova celebrated a trio of significant achievements at its Pensacola manufacturing facility, underscoring the factory’s critical role in America’s energy transformation. The Florida-based operation has reached three pivotal milestones that demonstrate both its manufacturing capacity and contribution to national energy security.
Record-Breaking Production for America’s Largest Wind Farm
- The Pensacola factory has produced enough wind turbines to supply over 1.2 GW of the massive 2.4 GW SunZia wind farm project in New Mexico. When completed later this year, SunZia will claim the title of the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere, representing a landmark achievement in renewable energy infrastructure. This milestone showcases the factory’s ability to support utility-scale projects that will fundamentally reshape America’s energy landscape.
- Adding to its impressive output, the facility has secured new orders for 109 wind turbines destined for RWE New Energy projects across Texas. These turbines will begin shipping later this year, further cementing Texas’s position as a national leader in wind energy generation while supporting the state’s growing electricity demands.
- Since 2024, the Pensacola factory has manufactured nearly 500 repower turbines, generating over 850 MW of enhanced capacity for existing wind projects nationwide. This repowering initiative breathes new life into aging wind farms, significantly boosting their efficiency and extending their operational lifespan while maximizing existing infrastructure investments.
The company has invested roughly $70 million in Pensacola since 2023, part of a broader $600 million national expansion creating over 1,500 American jobs.
The plant employs 700 workers and has created 2000+ jobs in our community. It has partnerships with BlueWind Technology and Jupiter Bach.
With nearly 57,000 turbines installed globally and almost 120 GW of capacity, GE Vernova’s Pensacola factory stands at the forefront of America’s energy independence movement, manufacturing the reliable, scalable turbines needed to meet surging electricity demands while strengthening national competitiveness in the global energy market.
Lean Manufacturing
In touring the production floor, I got to see how GE Vernova has implanted the Lean mindset.
The company has laid out five central principles called the GE Vernova Way: “We drive Innovation in everything we do, serve our Customers with pride and focus, and operate with a Lean mindset, focusing on safety, quality, delivery, and cost, across our operations. We act as One Team with inclusivity, authenticity, and diversity, allowing us to win together, and are Accountable both individually and collectively to deliver on our purpose and commitments.”
One section had a three-dimensional modeling table to brainstorm on possible improvements. The table was surrounded by boards that were updated daily on various indicators for different stages of the manufacturing process. Japanese terms appeared in the descriptions
Dig Deeper: One of the concepts at the heart of lean is kaizen, a Japanese term that means “continuous improvement.” According to GE Vernova’s website, during a kaizen, teams made up of management and frontline manufacturing employees gather for a week at “genba” — which means “the actual place” where the work gets done (think the production floor in a manufacturing setting).
Combing through every aspect of a production or business process, each team spends the week hunting for ways to eliminate waste and create more value with fewer resources using data-driven, team-oriented, structured problem-solving.
Taken together, those small tweaks and breakthrough big ideas add up to significant efficiency improvements that change the way business is done. And, in keeping with the true nature of continuous improvement, the work doesn’t stop there — kaizens happen regularly throughout the year.