World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

April 4, 2004 – Vol.9 No.2

WORLD WIND WATCH.

If the U.S. were to make a significant shift toward renewables there certainly would be job creation in the green energy industry. (See story above.) But exactly where would the jobs be?

Here’s an example.

Global Energy Systems, a new company headquartered in Wisconsin, has announced that it will build and operate the first fully automated facility in North America to manufacture parts and components for wind turbine generators. The plant, to be fully operational by this fall, will employ about 100 people, 75 of them in skilled labor positions.

The company will be able to make flanges, gearboxes, bed plates and hubs, but its specialty will be towers. The company aims to make more than 200 towers each year.

Interest in large-scale wind generating facilities - mega-wind-power plants - may be in slow period in the U.S., but interest in community-owned wind farms is on the rise, according to a new report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

The report - A Survey of State Support for Community Wind Power Development - includes various policies and incentives that states are using to support community wind power development as well as to show how the federal government can help in local wind power efforts.

While the report focuses mostly on the midwest, eastern states such as New York and Massachusetts are included in the report.

Community Wind Power Development is a portion of the Case Studies of State Support for Renewable Energy, a series jointly developed by LBNL and the Clean Energy Alliance. Community Wind is available at http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/EMS/cases/community_wind.pdf . The whole series is at http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/EMS/cases .