Wind, Trains Power Siemens' Future in the U.S.

Industry Week ^ | June 24, 2010 | Jonathan Katz

[Willie Green]

Public and private partnerships could be the wind that pushes the company forward in the race for high-speed rail and alternative energy in the United States.

German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG is betting that the United States will become a prime market for high-speed rail and renewable energy as the nation tries to lessen its dependence on fossil fuels. Part of the company's success in these areas will depend on what happens in Washington.

But government support alone won't fuel future growth in high-speed rail, says Daryl Dulaney, CEO of Siemens Industry Inc. "To make high-speed rail happen, it needs a number of constituents to support it," says Dulaney, who was appointed on Oct. 1, 2009, CEO of the division that oversees production, transportation and building technology solutions in the United States.

"Governments are one. Private investments are one. I wouldn't say it's one or the other. It certainly requires manufacturers, contractors, government, investors all working together to make this happen."

IndustryWeek spoke with Dulaney about Siemens' manufacturing future in the United States as part of IW's coverage of its annual list of the world's 1,000 largest publicly held manufacturers, which will appear in the publication's August issue. Siemens ranked No. 24 on last year's IW 1000 list and has moved into the top 20 for 2010. Here's what Dulaney had to say:

[Willie Green]

Siemens is involved in the Tranrapid Maglev technology that I follow, but on everything else, they're pretty similar to General Electric.
(Perhaps not, I can't recall if Siemens slaps their name onto domestic appliances or not.
And GE is so huge, I wouldn't be surprised if they own a chain of doughnut shops somewhere.)

Anyway, I think it's a shame that they're trying to do the windmill thingy... just like GE. We could've used more nukes instead of windmills, but it looks like Siemens pulled out of nuclear power just last year.

[DuncanWaring]

Maybe they could put wind turbines on top of their trains to generate power to run the trains.It's a joke, son, a joke! (invisible version of sarcasm tag)

[DonaldC]

I wonder if we still have the manufacturing capacity to build a project like this anymore.

[dirtboy]

Wind, Trains Government Subsidies Power Siemens' Future in the U.S.

[truthguy]

Wind and Solar Power are incomprehensibly stupid. We cannot exist as an industrial power with this level of stupidity.

[Willie Green]

I wonder if we still have the manufacturing capacity to build a project like this anymore.

We probably do in the short term.
But one of the problems of having cut back so much will be the lack of experienced youngsters to fill the shoes of retiring Boomers.

I've been saying all along: "high tech" manufacturing may be glitzy and glamorous, but it's just icing on the cake. It really can't survive very long by itself without a solid foundation of skills based on more fundamental/mature (but supposedly "boring") manufacturing technologies.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Wind and solar will not drive our transit system. You cannot idle the train when the wind does not blow or the sun sets. And we do not have the technology to store electrical power. If I do not hear about nuclear backup then I dismiss all articles about wind and solar as daydreams.

OTOH, we ship a great deal of freight across the country every day using great amounts of diesel fuel. These routes are fixed and could be electrified at a great reduction in our use of oil. But again, not if we rely on wind and sun.