Siemens Power Generation said Thursday it has chosen Fort Madison, Iowa, for its first U.S. wind turbine blade manufacturing site.
The manufacturing facility, to be housed in an existing building complex, will help Siemens to meet the growing demand for wind power generators in the U.S. It will employ about 250 people.
The first blades to be produced at the new facility will be for Siemens' 2.3 megawatt wind turbines, with production scheduled to start in the first half of 2007.
"This will be Siemens’ first blade factory in the U.S. and will further expand the capacities of our worldwide manufacturing network," said Randy Zwirn, president and CEO of Siemens Power Generation, Inc. and member of the PG Group Executive Management. "By expanding our wind power manufacturing capacity in the U.S., we will substantially increase our ability to competitively serve this important market, which is projected to triple by the year 2020."
With the U.S. Department of Energy’s goal of obtaining six percent of U.S. electricity from wind by 2020 and the growing public demand for clean energy, it is expected that wind energy will contribute an increasing amount of the nation’s energy supply.