N. DAKOTA WANTS WIND, GOES AFTER IT

North Dakota wooing wind turbine manufacturers
Dale Wetzel, August 31, 2009 (AP via Forbes)

"North Dakota's potential for generating wind power should help lure businesses that make equipment for the industry, economic development officials believe, but analysts say the state will face stiff competition.

"The state Commerce Department has [extended the $68,000 contract through June 30 of] a British firm to help drum up business prospects in Europe, where a number of large wind energy companies are based…[The firm] helped arrange meetings with a half-dozen industry prospects…"

The potential is enormous. (click to enlarge)

"…The (N.D.] Commerce Department had a booth in [the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Windpower 2009] conference's exhibit hall and plans a larger presence at the association's 2010 trade show in Dallas…[The Department] emphasizes that North Dakota has a number of tax and job training incentives for manufacturers and that its location has easy access to both the United States and Canada…North Dakota has… more than 700 megawatts of [wind] power, and developers have announced plans to add an additional 6,000 megawatts…Each megawatt can provide enough electricity to serve about 300 homes for one year…Even 7,000 megawatts is well below the state's potential, according to [AWEA]…It says North Dakota is capable of producing 138,400 megawatts of wind power, the most of any state."

ND leaders want to put up more marks. (click to enlarge)

"North Dakota has two principal [wind] manufacturers…DMI Industries builds steel towers for wind turbines. LM Glasfiber…makes turbine blades...[The state is] working to recruit companies that make parts for nacelles, the unit that converts wind energy into electricity. The nacelle (nah-SELL') - a French word that means "small boat" - sits atop the wind tower, and includes a generator, a gear box, a meter that measures wind speed and other equipment…Gov. John Hoeven has met with executives of several leading wind energy companies, including General Electric…Siemens…and Acconia…[about] North Dakota companies…making parts for the nacelle.

"Several states are looking to move beyond tower and blade manufacturing and into the more specialized realm of manufacturing and assembling nacelle components…Vestas Wind Systems A/S, a Danish company, is building plants to assemble nacelles and manufacture wind turbine blades in Brighton, Colo., and a wind tower factory in Pueblo. [Spain’s] Gamesa Technology Corp….recently established a U.S. headquarters in Langhorne, Pa.,…[where it] makes blades and nacelles…Siemens SA, of Germany, announced in May it intended to build a a nacelle manufacturing plant in Hutchinson, Kan. Another German company, Nordex AG, is building a new factory in Jonesboro, Ark., to make nacelles and wind turbine blades…"