With a little care and nurturing, seeds sown in early June between Northeast Wisconsin businesses and the international wind energy industry could sprout into the region’s newest crop — wind-turbine elements.
New North Executive Director Jerry Murphy believes his consortium’s participation in the world’s largest wind-energy conference in June will reap benefits for the state.
"If you are a wind-energy producer, and the only thing holding you back is finding components, you ought to be shopping in Wisconsin," he says.
Fifteen New North groups peddled that message to wind-industry professionals at the American Wind Energy Association Windpower 2008 Conference & Exhibit in Houston. The 15 joined some 750 groups and companies that exhibited at the four-day event, which attracted around 13,000 people.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s Clean Energy Wisconsin plan calls for 25 percent of Wisconsin utilities’ energy and fuel sales to come from renewable sources by 2025, and that’s led to the renewed interest in cultivating green sources of it. New North believes the area can be part of the supply chain to the wind industry, in particular.
"We have 100 percent of the capacities to produce 100 percent of the components for wind energy," says Murphy. "We may or may not become a major producer of wind energy, but we can become a major producer of wind-energy components."
Just like corn for ethanol, milk for cheese and trees for paper, ingredients for making wind turbines can be locally produced. Everything from metal composites for turbine blades to concrete for anchoring towers to construction firms well versed in erecting turbines can be found not only in Wisconsin but within the 18-county region comprising the New North, Murphy says.
"The wind industry is exploding, and the only thing hindering a lot of these companies from going forward is the ability to get materials," says Murphy.
Many states are eager to land such plants on their turf because of the revenue and jobs they would bring. Murphy and others say the New North has much to offer the wind-energy industry in return.
"We’re one of the stronger manufacturing areas in the country as far as having a high concentration and a wide range of businesses that produce a variety of products," says conference participant Chris Linn, vice president of marketing and business development for Bassett Mechanical in Kaukauna.
Linn is pleased that his company has a chance to help regionalize the global wind energy — in other words, bring it closer to home.
"Up until recently, if you look at where a lot of [wind industry] components came from, they came from Europe, Spain, Denmark — with maybe a few U.S. manufacturers," he says.
Major world wind-turbine manufacturers — including one from Asia — are expected to add plants in the U.S. in the next few years.
"There has been significant growth in wind energy, and just having one or two production areas in world doesn’t make a lot of sense," says Linn. "There’s tremendous potential here."
But Wisconsin is competing for the wind energy business with several other states, some of which have been more aggressive than Wisconsin has been. Iowa already has a wind-turbine manufacturer, and Ohio has made moves to encourage the wind industry in its state, Linn says.
Murphy says Michigan and Minnesota were represented at the conference, but those states didn’t have a consortium like the New North. Nor did they market themselves as a potential part of the wind turbine manufacturing supply chain.
"Mainly, they were just saying, ‘Come here because we’re a great place,’" he says.
