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CHARLOTTE – Gov. Bev Perdue was in Charlotte Wednesday morning to celebrate the expansion of the Siemens facility. The company held a grand opening ceremony for its new gas turbine hub at its plant on Westinghouse Boulevard. Construction on the hub began last year and has so far created more than 700 jobs.

"If you think about it, North Carolina workers and manufacturers are going to be making parts and assembling an engine that travels around the world," said Perdue.

As the need for clean, reliable and affordable energy continues to grow, Siemens is doing its best to recruit the best and the brightest by teaming up with local community colleges like CPCC to prepare future employees to join the workforce.

"We take kids out of high school and we hire them for Siemens and they work for three and a half years with us and take classes and get an Associates Degree in megatronics, which is the skill to run our automated machines," said Director of Operations Mark Pringle.

It's a continued commitment local leaders say is encouraging and refreshing in these uncertain economic times.

"We love the fact that they are a community partner and obviously in this economy, jobs are just tremendous," said Jennifer Roberts from the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners. "We know they're here to stay. We know this company will continue to thrive because energy is such a growing industry."

Another 400 jobs could be created in coming months.

Siemens makes large steam turbines and electric generators for power plants.