GEORGIA GETS WIND JOBS, MONEY

Wind Factory Watch: ZF Industries, Georgia
Tom Gray, 12 de Mayo de 2010 (Regulacion Eolica con Vehiculos Electricos)

"Germany's ZF Group, a major manufacturer of drive train equipment, broke ground recently on a $90-million wind turbines gearbox factory in Gainesville, GA...[It] will employ 215 workers when it is fully operational in 2012.

"...[It] offers yet another concrete answer (along with other wind equipment factories going up in Arkansas, South Carolina and elsewhere) to Congressional opponents of a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES)."

Georgia and several other Southeastern states are missing out on wind manufacturing opportunities. (click to enlarge)

"Those opponents have argued strenuously that an RES (a national requirement that utilities obtain a minimum percentage of their electricity from renewable energy sources) will discriminate against the Southeastern U.S. because it has little in the way of commercial wind resources."

An RES would also drive the development of Georgia's considerable biomass assets. (click to enlarge)

"What this argument fails to take into account is, first, that the Southeast has enormous biomass energy resources (indeed, enough that it currently exports some) and second, that it stands to reap new manufacturing jobs from a strong American wind energy industry, in part because jobs in the region's existing auto industry require similar skills. The new ZF Industries wind plant will be located just minutes away from an existing company plant that makes automotive equipment..."

[Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R):] “Now [ZF Industries is] getting into the renewable energy sector. That’s a good field; it allows Georgia to participate in the renewable energy sector. While we may not be able harvest all the wind, it’s still an opportunity to make the products that will harvest the wind energy worldwide.”