By the end of this year, about half of turbine components installed in the United States will be manufactured domestically, up from 30 percent in 2005, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
A Gust of Green Jobs
By Kate Galbraith
October 13, 2008
Wind turbine blades are heavy and huge. Could manufacturing them closer to the nation’s wind belt save transport costs and create much-needed jobs?
As Detroit shrinks, could “green jobs” — so beloved of presidential candidates — ride to the rescue of industrial America?
In the past month, four wind turbine parts manufacturers have announced plans to put factories in the heartland, otherwise known as the wind belt. New factories in Arkansas and Iowa will make turbine blades. Two others in Indiana and Minnesota will make gearboxes, which control a turbine’s rotational speed.
This continues a trend. Nine new wind manufacturing facilities — many of them foreign-owned — were announced last year, according to a Department of Energy report on wind power installation released in May.
By the end of this year, about half of turbine components installed in the United States will be manufactured domestically, up from 30 percent in 2005, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
Locating manufacturing facilities in the United States may shave a bit off wind-power costs, which have risen in recent years. Commercial turbine blades are heavy and huge, with rotor spans of about 200 feet. Transporting them requires a lot of costly fuel, so building them nearer to the wind farms where they will end up can save money.
However, Ryan Wiser, author of a study on wind power costs at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and co-author of the Department of Energy Report, suggested that transport is “certainly going to be less than 10 percent” of a wind project’s installed cost.
Another reason that companies are putting factories in the United States is the exchange rate. Despite modest recent corrections, the dollar has plunged against the euro over the last few years. It makes sense for European manufacturers to switch to the cheaper country, which also happens to be the world’s leader in generating power from wind.
Even so, wind power is not yet a panacea for the country’s manufacturing sector. Job gains from wind power are modest compared with the huge losses from traditional industries. General Motors alone has cut 19,000 jobs since February 2007, according to the Detroit Free Press. By contrast, only a quarter as many new jobs were created at wind factories opened or announced last year, according to the Department of Energy report.
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