USA - GE Energy announces two new wind turbine blade facilities

To reinforce its production capability in the face of growing global demand for wind turbines, GE Energy (Atlanta, Ga.) announced on Nov. 26, 2007, that it had signed a blade manufacturing agreement with TPI Composites (Warren, R.I.). In support of the agreement, TPI plans to build a new 316,000-ft² (29,360m²) facility in Newton, Iowa, that will create approximately 500 new jobs. TPI Composites already has manufacturing sites in Warren, R.I., Springfield, Ohio, Juarez, Mexico, and TaiCang, China. With the Iowa expansion, the company will reach an estimated 1.1 million ft² (102,190m²) of manufacturing space in 2008.

That followed a groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 19 by Molded Fiber Glass Cos. (MFG, Ashtabula, Ohio,) for a new wind turbine manufacturing plant in Aberdeen, S.D. The plant will fabricate blades for GE’s 1.5-MW machine, one of the most widely used wind turbines in the world. The new facility will be owned by the Aberdeen Development Corp. (ADC) and leased and operated by MFG, representing a $40 million (USD) investment and the creation of as many as 750 new jobs. The facility also will enable MFG to increase the production volume of wind turbine blade sets that will be supplied to GE Energy, an increase that will begin in 2008.

“GE currently has over 6,500 1.5-MW wind turbines in operation worldwide. By the end of 2008, we expect that number to exceed 10,000 units,” said Victor Abate, VP of renewables at GE Energy. “The new MFG facility in Aberdeen will significantly increase the manufacturing capacity of our supply chain, as we continue to face strong demand for wind turbines in the U.S. and worldwide.”

Says Richard Morrison, CEO of MFG, “We are pleased to continue supporting GE’s efforts in the wind energy industry, which is experiencing unprecedented growth around the world. We are also grateful to the team in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and their hard work to make this happen in South Dakota.”

In recent weeks GE Energy has announced agreements totaling nearly $1.5 billion to supply wind turbines for projects in the U.S. and Europe that represent more than a gigawatt (GW or 1,000 MB) of new wind power capacity. Building on a 500 percent increase in wind turbine production since 2004, GE expects its wind business revenues to exceed $4 billion this year. During the past two years, GE turbines have accounted for more than 50 percent of the new wind power capacity across the U.S.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council (Brussels, Belgium), more than 15 GW of new wind power capacity were installed worldwide in 2006, including more than 2.4 GW in the U.S. The American Wind Energy Assn. (AWEA, Washington, D.C.) projects that when final figures are in, the U.S. wind energy industry will have installed 4 GW in the U.S. in 2007, generating enough new electricity to power the equivalent of more than 1 million homes.