Central Upstate makes global cleantech news: Bitzer Scroll cuts ribbon on new plant

Bannon Automotive made global cleantech news last week with an announcement that it plans to manufacture electric cars in Upstate New York.  That announcement came on the heels of a ribbon cutting by Bitzer Scroll.  Read both stories here:  http://www.cleantech.com/news/5205/indian-carmaker-reva-ny-new-york 

Bitzer Scroll, Inc. a German manufacturer of compressors for air conditioning and refrigeration systems, also just cut the ribbon on a new manufacturing plant in the Syracuse area that is expected to create close to 300 jobs.  The firm conducted a worldwide search of possible sites for the new plant. A combination of factors—including business development incentives, local workforce expertise in compressor design, and regional strengths in energy and environmental systems research and development—led the firm to locate its new plant in the region.  “Central New York has a wealth of resources that made it a great fit for our new Scroll compressor business,” said  Richard Kobor, President of Bitzer Scroll Inc.  

The effort to recruit BITZER Scroll to New York was led by the Central New York office of Empire State Development. The effort included key contributions by the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (Syracuse CoE) and National Grid.  

The company, a subsidiary of Bitzer SE of Sindelfingen, Germany, occupies 60,000 square feet of space in GM’s former Inland Fisher Guide plant, now called Salina Industrial Powerpark. Bitzer has invested $20 million in the plant, where it plans to make scroll compressors in 20- to 40-ton capacities. Its only other U.S. plant is outside of Atlanta.

Kobor noted that the company picked the region because of the amount of engineering talent in the area. “This is the place we could find the critical mass of engineers,” he said. “There is still a lot of manufacturing and design talent in this area.”