Business Facilities - September 2008 - (Page 38)

FEATURE STORY By Jack Rogers More Than A n area stretching from the Great Plains to the Texas panhandle is home to one of the most consistent wind corridors in the world. As global oil prices have skyrocketed, the flat, barren cattle-drive trails of yesteryear are rapidly being populated by ultra-modern wind turbines in the 21st century drive to develop alternative energy. Texas and Iowa have emerged as leaders in the development of windgenerated electricity. According to the American Wind Energy Association, Iowa was the top-ranked state in 2007 for wind power measured as a percentage of overall electricity generation (at 5.5%), with almost 1,300 megawatts of installed capacity. As reported recently in our Business Facilities blog, Texas is undertaking the largest wind-power transmission project in the nation, a $4.93 billion effort that aims to build a web of transmission lines that can carry SEPTEMBER 2008 Just Hot Air Iowa is rapidly staking its claim as the number one wind-turbine manufacturing hub in the nation. 18,500 megawatts of wind-generated electricity. The Lone Star State already has the largest installed capacity of wind power, at 5,300 megawatts. Iowa, however, stands head and shoulders above other leading wind power players in a critical component of the emerging alternative energy industry: the Hawkeye State has established itself as the major wind-turbine manufacturing hub in the United States. Beginning in 2004, Iowa began a concerted effort to attract wind-turbine manufacturers to the state. Thus far, seven leading turbine makers—Siemens, Acciona, Clipper, Hendricks Industries, TPI Composites, and Trinity Structural Towers— have set up shop in Iowa. The pioneering firms already are expanding operations: earlier this year, Siemens Power Generation said it would invest another $33 million in its Fort Madison, IA, operation, adding more than 280 new jobs. Gov. Chet Culver has aggressively promoted renewable energy. LOW-COST LOGISTICS KEY According to Jeff Rossate, division administrator of Iowa’s Department of Economic Development, convenient logistics played a key role in the development of the turbine manufacturing hub. “Minimizing the logistics cost was key. We are centrally located for this market, and we are dealing with large components that are costly to move over great distances,” he says. “We got there first, and now we have the greatest concentration (of turbine makers).” Another big plus for the development of the turbine manufacturing hub was the availability of existing facilities that could be converted to turbine production, and the skilled labor force needed to man these operations. Many of these workers came from a pool of more than 1,800 Maytag employees who lost their jobs when the appliance maker shut down its operations in Newton, IA. The Maytag move and other relo- 38 PHOTO CREDIT: IDED

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Business Facilities - September 2008

Business Facilities- September 2008 Contents First Word Snapshots Corporate Moves:�Mississippi Editor's Location Picks 2008 The Palmetto State Reaches Across the Sea Corporate Moves:�Tennessee Metro Spotlight:�Spokane, WA Biotech: Building Block for Development Wind Power Lifts Iowa Germany:�Europe's Economic Juggernaut California Here We Come Up, Up and Away in North Carolina Corporate Moves:�West Virginia Metro Spotlight:�Decatur/Greensburg, IN Advertiser Index Ask the Expert

Business Facilities - September 2008

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