US giant GE has announced plans to invest $432 million in four ‘centres of excellence’ dedicated to the design and manufacture of a new generation of smart fridges and freezers.
The investment will “transform GE Appliances” says president and CEO James P. Campbell, revitalising its US business and manufacturing base.
New centres of excellence will be set up in Louisville, Kentucky; Bloomington, Indiana; Decatur, Alabama; and Selmer, Tennessee.
Each centre will focus on a different design: bottom-freezer fridges, side-by-side fridges, top-freezers and built-in appliances.
Efforts will focus on simpler designs with improved efficiency and all new products are being designed to meet anticipated 2014 ENERGY STAR standards.
Most of the new appliances will also feature smart grid technology, which allows consumers to control energy consumption and run appliances when electricity prices are lowest.
A “significant part of the investment” will be used to reduce the environmental impact of the manufacturing process, says GE. Initiatives include using a ‘greener’ foam insulating process to reduce overall carbon emissions at the four manufacturing sites by 90% and eliminating waste.
“The transformation underway at these facilities is breathing new life into US manufacturing and new life into our products,” says Dirk Bowman, general manager of manufacturing at GE Appliances.