Louisville, Ky -- (WDRB) G.E. brings a new product and new opportunities to Louisville.  A ceremony at G.E.'s Appliance Park launched the beginning of production for a new hybrid water heater.

The GeoSpring Hybrid Water Heater is the first new appliance produced in Louisville in more than 50 years.  The first one came off the assembly line Friday morning.

For Tim Taylor it finally means job stability. "For five years I just jumped from job to job," he says.

He lost a previous job at an auto parts plant. "It went out of business when the automotive business crashed," says Taylor, "and I've been hunting around for a new home ever since and I think I found it."

It is one of several new products that will be made there in the next couple of years.  G.E. is investing $800 million in Appliance Park to make the new items.

State and local governments put together $17 million in incentives to bring the new water heater to Louisville.

"We are thrilled to be able to partner with this project on economic development incentives and bringing those incentives to the table," Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear told a crowd gathered in Building Two to celebrate the occasion.

The investment is expected to bring about a thousand new jobs by 2014.

Louisville was chosen as the production city over a Chinese location.  An earlier version of the new water heater was made there, but Louisville was picked over China because it can offer a more competitive wage structure and be made more competitively in the U.S.

Beshear also told the crowd, "Already I understand that some 480 people have been hired.  That's a lot of families, folks, who will be better able to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads and be able to send their kids to school."

The GeoSpring provides the same amount of hot water as a standard 50-gallon tank water heater, but uses less than half the energy to produce it, saving you about $325 a year.

GeoSpring will be available in March at national retailers like Lowe's and Sears.

State and local tax credits should be available.