en.Wedoany.com Reported - Rolls-Royce has completed a $24 million logistics and production facility in Mankato, Minnesota, to expand its backup power equipment capacity in the United States, serving data centers and other critical facilities. The facility is a 250,000-square-foot logistics operations center adjacent to the company's existing mtu power plant. Rolls-Royce expects the additional space to help more than double the production capacity of mtu Series 4000 generator sets by the end of 2026. The project is also expected to add over 100 jobs in the Mankato area, increasing the company's local workforce by nearly 20%, with new positions in manufacturing, logistics, and assembly.
Approximately two-thirds of the new building is dedicated to logistics operations, with the remaining space supporting assembly and other production work. The facility includes temperature-controlled logistics and assembly areas, indoor loading docks, and space for further expansion. Relocating more logistics activities to the new center will also free up production space at the adjacent plant. The Mankato facility uses mtu Series 4000 engines produced at Rolls-Royce's Aiken, South Carolina plant to assemble generator sets. In July 2025, the company announced a separate $75 million investment in the Aiken plant, connecting engine manufacturing in South Carolina with generator set assembly in Minnesota.
The expansion is designed to support multiple markets, including healthcare, transportation, industrial operations, and data centers. When utility power is interrupted, these facilities rely on backup generation to keep critical systems running. For data centers, even a brief power outage can affect cloud services, digital transactions, and access to online platforms. Rolls-Royce's backup power systems currently serve over 25% of U.S. data centers. The Mankato expansion enables the company to address further growth in this market while continuing to support hospitals, airports, manufacturing bases, and other locations.
The Mankato investment is part of Rolls-Royce's broader effort to expand its U.S. industrial operations. The company reports having invested over $1.5 billion in the United States over the past decade, employing more than 5,000 people across 34 locations in 26 states, and partnering with over 1,000 U.S. suppliers. The company also estimates that its domestic operations contribute over $6.2 billion annually to the U.S. gross domestic product. The long-term impact of the expansion will depend in part on whether data center construction and demand for backup systems continue at their current pace. In the near term, the facility provides Rolls-Royce with additional space to increase generator set production, reorganize logistics, and retain a larger share of the critical power supply chain within the United States.
