As the U.S. moves toward a clean energy future, tech giant Siemens has made a $36 million investment in its Wendell, North Carolina Electrification and Automation U.S. headquarters. The facility, which has been home to Siemens’ U.S. medium-voltage business since 1980, has already created over 250 new jobs over the past year. It now has plans to hire more than 200 new employees over the next four years.

The company says the facility upgrades include an interactive Customer Experience Center, workforce training Power Academy classrooms, and in-house fabrication capabilities. This will allow them to scale up production to meet increasing demand for electricity for data centers, semiconductor facilities, and utilities.

In addition, Siemens is building a 1.5 megawatt (MW) solar-powered microgrid to reinforce their commitment to carbon neutrality. The microgrid is expected to be completed in the fall of 2025 and will be powered by a 1.5 MW solar array and a 3.9 MW hour battery storage system. This clean energy microgrid will generate nearly all of the facility’s energy needs.

To further reduce the facility’s carbon footprint, they will also be replacing natural gas-fired heating units with electric heat pumps.

Wendell facility head Brian Dula told CBS17 that energy distribution has become much more complicated. “Yesterday, [energy] was just transferred…from a utility to your home,” Dula said. “[Now] you need to be able to manage different incoming supplies of power. We make all the controllers and equipment that allow you to do that in a smart way and do it sustainably.”

According to Siemens Smart Infrastructure CEO Matthias Rebellius, the U.S. has become the company’s fastest growing market, much of it coming from the rise of renewable energy. “This is bringing complexity, and complexity can only be managed with digitalization,” he said.