UTICA, N.Y. -- Danfoss Silicon Power and government leaders announced Monday they've officially hired 11 employees at their new Utica facility. The new employees will be trained in Germany and will have leadership roles at the facility.

The new employees are from the area.

"The first employees we hired have engineering backgrounds, and are familiar with equipment and manufacturing," said Michael Hennessey of Danfoss Silicon Power. "The next group, we're gonna expand that out a little bit. We're also going to start to hire some of the other skills needed such as manufacturing management."

They're getting more equipment to get ready to start production. The plan is to create smaller, faster and more effective electronic devices to revolutionize technology in solar and wind energy, data centers and future generations of electric and hybrid cars.

"The ramp-up has now started. Now the exciting part starts, and we actually start to do things here. Produce, and of course hire people," said Kim Fausing of Danfoss Silicon Power.

The hope is to start operating in April or May 2018.