SIC 3511 Steam, Gas, and Hydraulic Turbines, and Turbine Generator Set Units

SIC 3511

This industry covers establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing steam turbines; hydraulic turbines; gas turbines, except aircraft; and complete steam, gas, and hydraulic turbine generator set units. Also included in this industry are manufacturers of wind and solar powered turbine generators and windmills for generating electric power. Establishments engaged in manufacturing nonautomotive type generators are classified in SIC 3621: Motors and Generators; those manufacturing aircraft turbines are classified in SIC 3724: Aircraft Engines and Engine Parts; and those manufacturing windmill heads and towers for pumping water for agricultural use are classified in SIC 3523: Farm Machinery and Equipment.

NAICS CODE(S)

333611

Turbine and Turbine Generator Set Unit Manufacturing

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Roughly 85 establishments operated in this industry in the late 1990s. They employed almost 17,500 people in 2000. Of this total, 9,600 were production workers who earned an average hourly wage of $24.24. The value of industry shipments increased steadily throughout the late 1990s, growing from $5.8 billion in 1997 to $7.9 billion in 2000.

Nearly all of the companies that entered the wind turbine business in the early 1980s—when the industry was in its heyday—have simply disappeared. By 1987 only three manufacturers of the larger-scale turbines used by utilities were still in business, and only one was producing turbines in significant numbers. The number of companies making small wind turbines for stand-alone power has also contracted substantially. In March 1995 the U.S. wind power industry received a fatal blow: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) overturned a decision that had forced utilities in California—the key U.S. market—to buy wind-generated power. Overseas demand presented a much brighter picture, however. The European wind power industry was doing well in the late 1990s because of the European Union's encouragement of renewable energy resources. China also was looking to wind power as a way of reducing the pollution generated by its utilities.

BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT

While early steam engines were reliable generators of electricity, they were big, heavy, inefficient devices. The modern steam turbine was developed in the late nineteenth century to replace them. Westinghouse shipped its first steam turbine in 1897, a few years before rival General Electric. By 1910 the largest steam turbine-generator unit could produce 30,000 kilowatts, compared with just 1,200 kilowatts ten years earlier. By 1940 single turbine units with a capacity of 100,000 kilowatts were in general use. During the 1950s and 1960s, steam turbines continued to dominate an expanding power-generation market, as fossil fuel prices remained low and ever-larger steam turbines were brought on line. In the 1980s, however, additions to the power capacity of utilities slowed because of erratic growth in consumption and the difficult political climate for utilities in many states.

In 1986 General Electric introduced a new series of advanced gas-fired turbines that turned around its faltering power systems segment. GE's relatively small and inexpensive gas turbines were ideal for utilities seeking to adjust to fluctuating demand by adding capacity selectively. In 1994 operating profits of its power...