America’s wind corridor
From Minnesota to Texas, wind power sweeps new jobs into old-tech towns.
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor/ February 5, 2009 edition
Reporter Mark Clayton describes why Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville, Iowa, may be the epicenter of American wind-turbine training.
Reporter Mark Clayton
Cedar Rapids and Estherville, Iowa
Hundreds of workers lost their jobs after the Rockwell-Goss printing press factory closed here in Cedar Rapids in 2001. The hulking empty shell sat idle on the outskirts of the city for four years.
But that was before wind power blew into town, bringing thousands of clean-tech manufacturing jobs to Iowa and the Midwest.
In many cases, the new industry is setting up shop in defunct heavy manufacturing plants, bringing new economic life and vitality to old settings.
Bob Loyd, who once oversaw crews manufacturing the last printing presses to leave the old Rockwell-Goss factory, now manages workers assembling the newest generation of giant wind turbines in the same building.
“We’ve all watched the demise of heavy manufacturing in the Midwest in recent years,” says Mr. Loyd, plant manager at Clipper Turbine Works, a division of Clipper Windpower in Carpinteria, Calif.
“I wouldn’t say it’s all returned. But wind power is definitely helping bring some of that manufacturing muscle back.”
Before the nation’s financial crisis hit, wind manufacturing was on a roll. Riding a wave of wind-farm development, some 55 new or expanded facilities popped up nationwide just last year – from blade manufacturers to bearing makers – in what some describe as a new north-south wind manufacturing corridor running roughly from Minnesota to Texas.
Iowa is the corridor’s hotbed. In West Branch, Iowa, Spanish wind-power giant Acciona last year renovated a former hydraulics factory. In Fort Madison, German wind-turbine blademaker Siemens set up shop in a former truck-trailer factory. Last spring, wind-tower maker Trinity Structural Towers took up residence in a former Maytag appliance factory in nearby Newton.
Such growth brought more than 1,000 new “green collar” jobs in wind manufacturing to Iowa just last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Nationwide, wind-turbine manufacturing added 13,000 jobs for a total of 85,000 wind workers last year. That’s just the sort of shift President Obama will need in order to reach his goal of doubling renewable energy capacity in three years and growing jobs.
The Midwest is uniquely suited
Clipper decided on the old printing presses factory in Cedar Rapids due to the plant’s central location to future wind development in Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. Other factors included the growing supply chain of turbine components, as well as this big factory – whose reinforced concrete floors can easily handle the 100-ton hub-and-nacelle assemblies.
In the world of wind turbines, bigger is better. Clipper’s “Liberty” wind turbine is not the biggest, although it is the largest made in the US at 2.5 megawatts of capacity – enough to supply more than 800 households with power. Fully deployed, the turbine is 262 feet high and its blades are each up to 160 feet long even. Even still, Clipper said last month it was working on an offshore turbine three times as big.
But a critical feature in locating the Clipper plant was the human factor – the pool of ready and skilled manufacturing workers like Mike Smith, who understands the discipline.
“Before this, I was building concrete sewer pipes,” says Mr. Smith, who takes a moment from handpolishing gear teeth to a mirror finish. “I’m really enjoying this because it’s a job you can be proud of. I can say I did my part helping the nation’s energy situation and the environment.”
Still, the push toward a wind-manufacturing “critical mass” that could lower the $2-3 million cost for a typical wind turbine and accelerate mass deployment, has clearly hit a pothole. With stiff credit markets, weaker financing for wind-farm construction has stalled a number of developments. Experts at AWEA predict a 25 to 50 percent slowdown this year in wind-farm development. That slower demand has clipped Clipper’s backlog. Although Loyd denies any outright cancellations, the factory is filling up with sold turbines that can’t be shipped yet. Last month, Clipper laid off 90 of its 380 workers due to slack demand.
“The US wind energy industry’s performance in 2008 confirms that wind is an economic and job-creation dynamo,” AWEA president Denise Bode said in a statement. “At the same time, it is clear that the economic and financial turmoil have begun to take a toll on new wind development.”
Other analysts agree that if the wind industry can get enough of a boost from the pending stimulus package – including up to $24 billion in tax incentives, renewable-energy loan guarantees, and an extension of a vital production tax credit – business will remain steady this year.
Even though the US boasts 25,000 megawatts of wind-generating capacity – enough to power 7 million homes – that’s still just about 1.5 percent of the nation’s electricity.
“We still see the overall health of the US wind industry in very good shape and poised to scale in future years,” says Matt Kaplan, a senior wind analyst at Emerging Energy Research in Boston. “It is hindered only a little by this blip in financial markets.”
Wanted: Turbine repairmen
Even amid the economic gloom, demand is still soaring in one wind-energy area: wind-turbine technicians. Wind-farm growth has come on so fast worldwide that huge demand remains for technicians to maintain them.
Zip four hours northwest of Cedar Rapids to the town of Estherville. Set amid the cornfields, it enjoys one institution that has become a critical hub for the wind corridor: Iowa Lakes Community College. The school has carved out a niche training wind technicians. Its hands-on training on its own turbines is considered among the best in the nation.
“Even with the slowdown, we’re seeing really strong demand and we’re expanding our program,” says Harold Prior, president of the college.
Last fall, 220 students applied for 72 first-year openings in Iowa Lakes’ two-year program. Charles Higgins is one of those. Emerging from a hydraulics class, he ponders his long-distance move from balmy Richmond, Va., to the wind-swept landscape of northern Iowa in January.
“It was a big move for me,” he says. “I wondered at first if wind power might be a fad. But it’s clear to me now this industry is for real.”
Once a psychology major at a four-year school, he gave up the warmth of home for wind power. He figures it’s a good paying job that will keep him in shape since most wind turbine towers don’t have elevators, Mr. Higgins jokes.
“One of the first things they did was to have us climb the ladder inside the tower to the top,” he says. “It was 260 feet high and I was really scared, but I didn’t tell anyone. I’ve done it a lot since, so now I actually like it. It’s a really nice view.”
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Comments
2. lee | 02.05.09
In her State of the State of Michigan the Governor cited many examples of wind power industry growing in Michigan and providing many new jobs as well as utilizing existing but up till now unused factories.
3. John | 02.05.09
I’ve heard that, too. I think John Deere is building a big wind farm in rural Michigan - and there are other companies lining up to do business there also.
4. Tara | 02.05.09
I’m thrilled to be witnessing the end of the insanity of dependence of fossil fuels and the cartels that control them, including exxon, mobil, etc. I’ve lived in California for 30 years and have first-hand experience of how “alternative” energy can become mainstream. Welcome to the 21st century, America!
5. Steve L. | 02.05.09
I’m dismayed to read in the article, “Even though the US boasts 25,000 megawatts of wind-generating capacity – enough to power 7 million homes – that’s still just about 1.5 percent of the nation’s electricity.” Is 1.5% really all we can get out of wind? If so it won’t be solving our dependence on foreign oil, ever. We need to develop solar thermal, which permits some storage I understand, and we need to build tranmission lines from inland to coasts. Here in my San Francisco, big talk little action, we can’t think of offshore wind power; heavens no, our ocean is a marine sanctuary, sacred and off limits. Let others ruin their aesthetics.
6. Mary Rene | 02.05.09
Will Clipper, or Gamesa, or Siemen’s please come to St. Louis to reutilize one of our many closed factories? We have incredible wind corridors here too if anyone would care to check it out. The storms through Missouri follow Interstate 44 from southwest to northeast almost every time.
Let’s not forget old-fashioned water turbines. I still wonder WHY the new lock and dam to Alton Illinois was not hydro-electric. The Mississippi River will never dry up; neither will the Missouri. Instead of throwing good money after bad to the banks, let’s loan it directly to Wind industries, in tax free bonds–CUT out the middlemen.
7. rhett | 02.05.09
Wind is a wonderful idea but this approach is shallow and inept and obviously funded by the same big business oriented machine that is behind the current economic stench. We need to develop micro hydro and micro wind generation so everyone can sell back to the grid. Just like its always 5 O’Clock somewhere. The wind is always blowing somewhere and the rain is always falling somewhere. Micro generation allows the power from these “somewheres” to be generated during off hours and transmitted to places where usage is at a peak. Large scale power generation chains us to the grid and the infrastructure represents the same boondogle that any big business, government, or social entity faces; the problems become too expensive to maintain and the beurocratic quagmire becomes too entangled to navigate. If we don’t embrace solutions that enrich us all we will all suffer in the long run.
8. Joze Rant | 02.06.09
Wind power is beautiful, but alltogether can provide only 1.5% of energy needs of USA. Good for neighborhood, but for the nation go and build nuclear power plants!
9. Jeff | 02.06.09
The advancement in wind energy is limited by certain factors (transmission, grid efficiency, logistics, NIMBY attitude,etc.), but it is advancing–that is the key. The reality is that significant growth has occurred and will likely proceed over the next decade. Those states that have benefitted from turbine manufacturing and wind generation were smart enough to see the trend coming. It is unfortunate that states such as Michigan and California didn’t recognize soon enough and they will be left behind unless their industry leadership learns to address new opportunities. Kudos to Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania for looking forward.
10. Wind guy | 02.06.09
I think some of the commentators have misinterpreted the 25,000 MW capacity providing 1.5% of the country’s power. That is just what has been installed up to this point. There are many more wind resources that can be harnessed which will elevate this percentage, it just has yet to be developed. A big problem is that often the resources are in remote locations and therefore need to be transmitted to greater populations. Improvements in transmission (like high voltage DC power lines, unfortunately very expensive to start from scratch) and energy storage would be other areas that could be a major benefit for our energy independence.
11. Mark | 02.06.09
Wind energy is meant to supplement power to the grid, it’s not a replacement. It seems people have a tough time comprehending this concept. Right now it’s 1.5% of our energy nationwide, the potential is much larger. While other energy-producing technologies are abundant, there is more by-product and consequences to those technologies. Hydro, coal, solar, nuclear, wind - of all of these, wind is the medium that drives a turbine which creates electricity and produces no smog, no black-lung, no cave-ins or trapped miners, no plutonium and doesn’t require vast amounts of land to create energy. In Iowa we grow crops around these turbines. On top of that, it’s proven technology and it’s working now. Many people hated horseless carriages… just sayin’
13. VG | 02.06.09
Wind only contributes 1.5%, not because we are not capable of producing more, but because we as a nation never got the clue quicker. If you look at European Nations, they are light years ahead of the USA. US wind industry, in reality, is in its infancy. We have the opportune time now to support alternative energy and make our mark in the wind industry not only domestically, but globally. We are talking a lot of new jobs.
14. Wind Tech | 02.06.09
Just getting a good laugh reading some of the above comments:
California being left behind?? Drive through Tehachapi or Palm Springs, and tell me what you see? Over half of all wind turbines currently in use are in these two areas of California.
Some readers did not seem to understand that that 1.5% is the current amount of energy being produced by wind turbines, this will grow with the continued development of additional wind farms, which by the way also creates additional jobs for wind techs like myself, administrative personnel, safety personnel, supply personell, shipping of parts also boosts the trucking and shipping companies… it goes on and on with the benefits.
Also I want to mention the state of Kansas has recognized the benefits of this industry, and has embraced it with open arms.
Thank you joe for pointing out the cleanliness of this generation medium also. We wind techs take a lot of pride in what we are doing, and most have a truly heartfelt commitment to the GREEN efforts.
15. Tom G | 02.07.09
Why don’t our Congressman get this. Wind energy can revitalize our plains states and give struggling farmers/ranchers a second source of income.
16. Wind Jobs - David L. | 02.08.09
Interesting article, thank you. The wind industry is still hiring. I review new jobs postings daily and I continue to see a need for wind technicians, even though the economy has slowed significantly. If anyone is curious to see what wind jobs are available, please visit: windjobs.org.
18. David | 02.08.09
The fact that wind power is such a small percentage of our total energy production is a good thing! It means there is tremendous growth opportunity which will create jobs over an extended period of time(20-30years)in an area of the country, America’s wind corridor, that needs jobs the most.
19. marilyn | 02.09.09
Just finished the economic survey. This is the type of news I will want to read. I live in West Virginia where mountaintop removal is ruining our hills for future use. The coal industry is not held accountable enough for planting these scars with greenery. They publicize a few places and leave many in bad shape. The coal industry hides their work by leaving a buffer zone near traveled ways but the view from an airplane is shocking. It is a delight to read of the progress in the wind industry. The present electricity boost at less than 2 per cent of the nation’s use of electricity is a start. More power to the industry! Here is a good use for stimulus money.
20. Robert | 02.09.09
The whole industry is corrupt including wind. There is only one solution: the energy state. http://www.energystate.org
21. James Corbin | 02.15.09
The problem is that wind energy is not efficient. One of these turbines will produce electricity for 800 houses. That sounds like a lot until you realize that businesses and factories consume much more electricity than houses. Then there is the maintenance on the turbines. Lastly, don’t forget that the wind doesn’t blow non-stop anywhere so you had better have a backup.
22. fireofenergy | 02.17.09
We need to build giant turbines based on vertical axis “drums” too. Even though much “slower”, these monsters could each deliver on the GW scale, and start up in less wind. Automated PV factories are a necessity. It seems a bit of a conspiracy theory that they are not already dirt cheap (use robots). Rooftops alone would supply 20% of the nations needs (assuming an average of 200 sq ft per roof)! And we need to employ CSP which really can provide up to 90% of baseload power once the transmission upgrade is complete (assuming new lines in the southwest and over sized heat storage).
Enviro’s need to care more about all the damage POST OIL CRISES will do than worry about pretty lands and their backyard.
23. rick | 03.03.09
I work for a small foundry in PA that makes some wind turbine castings.I have been laid off since nov.08 What a wonderful thing this new energy source is doing for me and others!!!
24. Jack Bolly | 03.10.09
The best locations for wind power are jsut offshore. The USA has lots of shoreline reasonably close to population. That’s where the best investment will come, from off-shore wind farms.
25. CB | 03.30.09
To all you naysayers. Do some honest research for once in your lives. Fact: all sources of energy have benefits and downsides. Fact: this country needs more energy sources. Fact: Nobody wants a Nuke plant in their backyard or a Coal plant for that matter. Fact: this country need energy sources that don’t require shipping our dollars and jobs overseas. Fact: Polluting energy sources end up costing more in the long run for the resulting cleanups needed and nobody wants a Superfund cleanup site in their backyard either. So given all these facts, which energy sources fit the bill? They would be Hydro, Natural Gas, Tidal, Wind, Geothermal and Solar. Hydro is out as there are few places left suitable to build a new major dam. Natural Gas is dwindling and becoming more expensive every day. Tidal is mostly uproven in terms of cost/benefit. Geothermal is great but very limited in terms of where one can access it. That leaves Wind and Solar. Wind and solar sources are available almost everywhere in varying amounts. The tech for both is improving at a rapid rate so it’s becoming cheaper/watt to produce. Can you say that about oil/coal/gas? There are still issues in terms of storage and transmission but they are also rapidly being solved. The thing about storage right now is nil because the “grid” has plenty of capacity for storage and it’s already in place. Wind is great for utility scale applications and Solar is the ultimate solution for energy anywhere. Solar can go literally anywhere now. Home roofs, business roofs, bridge overpasses, medians, fields, backpacks, you name it.
27. Long | 07.13.09
The future will incoroporate a matrix of “all of the above” sources of energy. However, each of the various options WILL have to fly on their own longterm w/o subsidies. Like it or not, I do think you’ll see Wind grow from it’s current 1.6% of the nations power. Will it produce 20% or 25% of our power as predicted? Probably not. But even a marginal growth WILL definately spur the Wind producing businesses immediately. We have several really solid foundry groups right here in the States prepared to satisfy this growth when it occurs……wonder why its not occurring. As noted above, there are many foundry groups (that make the critical castings within these huge wind turbines) that are STILL only working 3 day work weeks. Go figure.
28. Dr. White’sTeeth | 09.17.09
Wind and Solar power offer us so many options. We can work on making the switch to sustainable energy, while also creating new jobs. There are many places to build these structures as well. Experts just need to keep working on improving energy conversions, but in time I believe most of the energy powering the US can be sustainable.
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1. From Minnesota to Texas, wind power sweeps new jobs into old-tech towns. « The Valley Progress Report | 02.05.09
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1. joe | 02.05.09
hello.