September 07, 2008

Siemens opens new wind turbine blade facility in the US

Siemens Power Generation has opened its new wind turbine blade factory at Fort Madison in Iowa State of US on September 21st 2007. The factory is expected to produce approximately 600 wind turbine blades per year, which will be shipped to wind farms in the US. It’s the company’s first manufacturing plant for wind turbine components in the US for which the total investment is more than EUR 20 million.

Siemens established the 311,000 square foot turbine blade manufacturing facility in Fort Madison to better meet the strong demand for clean wind energy in the US. Blades for the company’s 2.3 W wind turbines are manufactured at the new site. The first 148 foot long, 12 ton blades were delivered to a customer site in Texas in August 2007. So far, the company has hired 220 employees in Fort Madison a number that is expected to grow to 260 people by the end of the year.

Since the acquisition of Bonus Energy in 2004, Siemens has made significant strides to grow its presence in the wind energy industry in the US. In 2006, Siemens ranked second in market share in the U.S. with an installed capacity of 570 MW. The company expects to greatly exceed this number in 2007. So far this year, Siemens has already received wind turbine orders totaling more than 550 MW in the US. Altogether, these projects have the potential to provide clean power to nearly 140,000 homes.
The Power Generation Group of Siemens AG is one of the premier companies in the international power generation sector. According to US GAAP in fiscal 2006, it posted sales amounting to more than EUR 10 billion and received new orders totaling EUR 12.5 billion, Group profit amounted to EUR 782 million.