World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

August 27, 2006 – Vol.11 No.23

WORLD WIND WATCH.

With a continued boom in wind energy for the US and Canada suppliers are gearing up to cash in and are creating new jobs in the process.

DMI Industries, a division of Otter Tail Corporation, has opened the first wind tower manufacturing facility in Ontario, Canada. It is also the company’s second such facility. The Ontario plant is in Fort Erie and has the capacity to build 400-500 steel wind tower sections per year with a potential to double that.

The company now employs 319 at its headquarters and manufacturing facility in West Fargo, North Dakota and the new plant in Fort Erie employs 110 with 10-15 new hires expected by the end of the year as well as another possible 100 by the end of 2007.

DMI has delivered more than 1800 towers to the wind industry since 1999 to nearly all the major players in the North American market.

Earlier this year others have moved into the wind tower market or are planning to.

Algoma Steel of Sault Saint Marie, Ontario with partner Schaaf Industries Corporation of Germany plans to establish a wind tower manufacturing facility in Sault Saint Marie to build up to 180 towers per year.

Tower Tech Holdings of Manitowoc, Wisconsin is building wind turbine towers at its 46 acre site there and has taken orders from turbine makers Vestas and Gamesa for wind projects

Visit DMI Industries at http://www.dmiindustries.com/index.shtml , Algoma Steel at http://www.algoma.com/ . Tech Tower at http://www.towertechsystems.com/

Having just broken ground on its wind turbine blade facility in Howard, South Dakota, California-based Knight & Carver has received a significant order for wind turbine blades.

Storm Lake Partners I of Storm Lake, Iowa has ordered an undisclosed number of 25-meter wind turbine blades. Production for the blades, to be the largest the company has built, will begin immediately in California. The order seems representative of the kind of business the company will be seeking when its 26,000 square foot manufacturing and repair facility in Howard opens in November. The company’s main area of expertise is in yacht building but composite construction of yachts is similar to that of wind turbine blades.

The facility in South Dakota is expected to employ 10 - 25 full time workers when it opens with employment growth steady after that. Visit Knight & Carver at http://www.knightandcarver.com/