April 11, 2007—The rapid growth of wind power in the US has resulted in two new factories to manufacture wind turbine blades, as well as efforts by the Department of Energy to establish a new facility for testing large wind turbine blades, reports the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Knight & Carver opened its wind blade manufacturing and repair facility in Howard, South Dakota, on March 6. The new facility will serve as the wind blade headquarters for Knight & Carver, which was previously better known for building yachts, notes EERE. The 26,000-square-foot facility will employ as many as 25 full-time employees in 2007, with plans to expand within two years.
Meanwhile, Vestas announced in March that it has decided to build a wind blade factory in Windsor, Colorado. The new $60 million facility, located between Fort Collins and Greeley, will have a production capacity of 1,200 blades per year and will employ about 400 people, says EERE. The Danish company bills itself as the leading supplier of wind power technology in the world, and has already installed more than 9,300 wind turbines in the US. In early March, Vestas received an order for eight of its 3-megawatt wind turbines, which will be installed at the Tehachapi Pass in Southern California as part of an effort to install 1,500 megawatts of wind power there. Construction on the new blade factory will begin soon, and the factory will start producing wind turbine blades in early 2008.
The new facilities highlight the importance of DOE’s efforts to establish a new facility for testing large wind turbine blades, adds EERE. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and EERE recently announced that the location for the new facility has been narrowed to either Texas or Massachusetts. The finalist will be named in mid-2007 and awarded a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with NREL, along with $2 million in capital equipment for the blade test facility in addition to technical assistance. The facility will cost as much as $12 million and will be able to test wind turbine blades that are as much as 230 feet in length. For more information visit NREL’s Wind Research page.
