GE extends wind turbine manufacturing in Ontario

The company has orders in Ontario from 11 projects, and by 2012 will have 1.2GW of capacity operating the province. It currently has about 5000 employees in Ontario, about one-fifth of them working at the Peterborough plant, which makes large motors for industry.

GE also plans to tap into its existing supplier network to meet the local content target, which ramped up to 50% this year.

"Our strengths in Ontario are a true differentiator for our wind business," said Victor Abate, vice president of renewable energy.

The model is one GE successfully deployed in neighbouring Quebec, where GE is wrapping up the multi-year delivery of 593 1.5MW turbines to eight projects this year.