Cummins touts “New Power,” welcomes Pres. Biden to Electrolyzer Plant
On Monday, President Joe Biden visited a Cummins’ power generation manufacturing facility in Fridley, Minnesota (near the OPE Business office) as the start of his “Investing in America” tour. Before Pres. Biden spoke, Cummins Vice Chairman Tony Satterthwaite addressed a crowd of Cummins employees, executives, and local officials about the company’s clean-energy intentions.
“We have the responsibility, and the opportunity, to lead our industry through the energy transition in a way that keeps our economy running and creates new jobs,” Satterthwaite said Monday, adding that public-private partnership is critical in that transition. Cummins touts its “New Power” efforts and “Destination Zero,” the company’s goal to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050. To help reach that goal, the global engine manufacturer recently launched Accelera, its new brand and business focused on “new power” using what the company calls, “a diverse portfolio of zero-emissions solutions includes battery systems, fuel cells, ePowertrain systems and electrolyzers.”
The manufacturer’s Fridley, Minnesota office and plant will be the site of its first electrolyzer manufacturing facility in the United States, a $10 million investment that’s expected to create 100 new jobs. Using an electric current, electrolyzers separate water into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen can be used as a clean power source.
Satterthwaite applauded Pres. Biden and the U.S. Congress for having “the vision on clean energy and the confidence in American business to deliver on it.”
“Federal investment attracts private investment. It creates jobs and industries, and it demonstrates we’re all in this together. And that’s what today is all about,” Biden said Monday. “I’m here to talk about what we’re doing to invest in America, invest in Minnesota, and the progress we’ve made in building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
Coinciding with the visit, Cummins has announced it will invest more than $1 billion across its U.S. engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina and New York, on top of recent investments made in the Minnesota plant. The investment will, according to a company statement, provide upgrades to those facilities to support the industry’s first fuel agnostic engine platforms that will run on low carbon fuels, including natural gas, diesel and eventually hydrogen, helping decarbonize the nation’s truck fleets today.
The Cummins Power Systems factory is a 1.1 million square feet full-service facility, concentrating on design, product, service engineering and manufacturing located just north of Minneapolis. Established in 1969, Fridley employs over 900 and will plan to dedicate 89,000 square feet of the existing facility to electrolyzer production starting April 24. This is a $10 million investment that will support 100 new jobs by 2024.
A global manufacturer with headquarters in the U.S., Cummins is more than 100 years old, it employs 70,000 people around the world, with 26,000 of those people in the U.S.
OPE Business plans an interview in the coming days with leaders of Cummins and Accelera to learn more about “new power” and its impact on the outdoor power equipment industry.
