GE Energy announces two new U.S. wind turbine blade facilities

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.compositesworld.com/hpc/issues/2008/January/112412

GE Energy announces two new U.S. wind turbine blade facilities

By Staff | January 2008

To reinforce its production capability in the face of growing global demand for wind turbines, GE Energy (Atlanta, Ga.) announced on Nov. 26, 2007, that it had signed a blade manufacturing agreement with TPI Composites (Warren, R.I., 2577). In support of the agreement, TPI plans to build a new 316,000-ft2 (29,360m2) facility in Newton, Iowa, that will create approximately 500 new jobs. TPI Composites already has manufacturing sites in Warren, R.I., Springfield, Ohio, Juarez, Mexico, and TaiCang, China. With the Iowa expansion, the company will reach an estimated 1.1 million ft2 (102,190m2) of manufacturing space in 2008.

That followed a ground-breaking ceremony on Nov. 19 by Molded Fiber Glass Cos. (MFG, Ashtabula, Ohio, 1962) for a new wind turbine manufacturing plant in Aberdeen, S.D. The plant will fabricate blades for GE’s 1.5-MW machine, one of the most widely used wind turbines in the world. The new facility will be owned by the Aberdeen Development Corp. (ADC) and leased and operated by MFG, representing a $40 million (USD) investment and the creation of as many as 750 new jobs. The facility also will enable MFG to increase the production volume of wind turbine blade sets that will be supplied to GE Energy, an increase that will begin in 2008.

...

In recent weeks GE Energy has announced agreements totaling nearly $1.5 billion to supply wind turbines for projects in the U.S. and Europe that represent more than a gigawatt (GW or 1,000 MB) of new wind power capacity. Building on a 500 percent increase in wind turbine production since 2004, GE expects its wind business revenues to exceed $4 billion this year. During the past two years, GE turbines have accounted for more than 50 percent of the new wind power capacity across the U.S.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council (Brussels, Belgium), more than 15 GW of new wind power capacity were installed worldwide in 2006, including more than 2.4 GW in the U.S. The American Wind Energy Assn. (AWEA, Washington, D.C.) projects that when final figures are in, the U.S. wind energy industry will have installed 4 GW in the U.S. in 2007, generating enough new electricity to power the equivalent of more than 1 million homes.

[ladjf]

1. OKIsItJustMe, you are without a doubt the leading contributor

of good information about renewable energy on the DU. You are doing an outstanding job. As I said to you before, I read every one of your posts and encourage you to keep up the outstanding work!

[momophile]

2. I'll second this.

Just when I'm about to cry about global warming and peak oil I read an article that makes me wonder if maybe, just maybe, we can make it through okay.

thanks for posting all the great articles.

[phantom power]

3. Domestic manufacturing. So crazy, it just might work.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. There are a few domestic manufacturers

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/large_wind_turbines_generators_manufacturers.htm