Siemens to build wind turbine blade factory in USA (Iowa)

[jpak]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-08-17T150308Z_01_L17430789_RTRIDST_0_MANUFACTURING-SIEMENS-WIND.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna

FRANKFURT, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to set up a wind turbine blade factory in Iowa, its first U.S. factory since it entered the wind power business two years ago, to take advantage of growing demand for clean energy there.

The industrial conglomerate said on Thursday it would modernise and equip an existing 20,000 square metre (200,000 square feet) site at Fort Madison, where it expects to employ 250 people and start production in the first half
of next year.

"Thanks to the timely tax breaks for wind power passed by Congress and the continuing high oil and gas prices, this market should keep developing very positively," Siemens' head of wind power, Andreas Nauen, said in a statement.

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[phantom power]

1. Good news, but it's a real shame it's all foreign companies.

[Uben]

2. We have one here

We have a wind turbine blade factory here in north Texas. Those things are huge! I think the name of the company is MFG (molded fiberglass products). They ship a lot of the blades. They stage them in an area just off I-35. There is currently a proposal to have a wind farm installed in our county and adjoining counties, but they have met with quite a bit of opposition from the locals. I personally would like to see it go through. Any dependence on fossil fuels we can curb, the better!

[greenman3610]

3. I truly don't get the opposition to windfarms

ignorant freaking crackers

[hatrack]

4. Ignorant East Coast monied Brahmins, too

Witness the fuss over the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts, for example.

[skids]

5. And Gamesa in PA.

Foreign companies don't seem to think American workers are horribly overpayed or underqualified... figure that. :shrug: