World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

July 16, 2006 – Vol.11 No.17

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Recently Tower Tech Systems of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a fabricator of wind turbine towers and other components, announced that it had secured an order from Gamesa for 46 wind turbine towers that would be delivered at a rate of about two per week.

Given the growth rate of wind energy in the US and Canada - the companie’s intended markets for its towers - two towers per week, 104 per year - is not nearly enough to meet potential demand. Now, with planned production capacity expansion by the end of 2006 the company will be able to produce 150 per year and by the end of 2007, 300 towers per year - more than one per workday will be possible.

The company says that because it is 350 miles from 70 percent of North America’s identified sites for wind energy projects, it is geographically well positioned to feed the market with towers. The new capacity to mass produce turbine towers will economically benefit the company as well as the wind energy industry. Reduced shipping costs because of its proximity to wind sites and mass production, using automated equipment as employed by Tower Tech, keeps costs down that can be passed on to customers.

Visit Tower Tech at http://www.towertechsystems.com/

More difficult and expensive to transport than wind towers are wind turbine blades. Individual blades can be over 150 feet long, so when possible, blades are manufactured close to wind farm sites.

Like Tower Tech moving to the north central part of the US, Knight & Carver, a wind turbine blade and custom yacht builder based in southern California is in the process of setting up shop in Howard, South Dakota.

The company has leased a 26,000 square foot space for the repair and manufacture of wind turbine blades. The plant will have 10 - 25 full time employees in 2007 and 46 within three years. The company received economic incentives from the state, Miner County Community Revitalization and Heartland Consumer Power District to open the plant in Howard.

Visit Knight and Carver at http://www.knightandcarver.com/