Favorable Political Winds Blow E.U. Turbine Producers to the U.S.

[pampango]

Source: New York Times

"COPENHAGEN -- It was a scene familiar to many a Western labor activist: manufacturing workers in a developed country protesting in vain the outsourcing of their jobs overseas. Earlier this month, workers barricaded themselves in Vestas Wind Systems' wind turbine blade factory on Britain's Isle of Wight to try to convince the company not to shut down the plant, dismiss 425 workers and move production to another country. The only unusual part of the story was that the outsourcing location was not a Third World country. The blade manufacturing jobs were headed toward the United States. The global wind power industry sees it as its most lucrative future market."

"Vestas is rapidly expanding its production base in the United States, where it says it has created more than 1,200 skilled jobs. The company expects that number to climb to more than 4,000 by the end of 2010, if President Obama's Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is carried out. Vestas believes that the Obama-led push to more renewables will stimulate demand and re-establish the United States as the world's largest market for wind turbines. It hopes Congress will pass a national renewable energy standard that will stabilize the U.S. market in the long run.

Last year, Vestas opened a blade factory in Windsor, Colo., hiring 650 people. This year and the next, it will add another blade factory and a nacelle assembly factory in Windsor, as well as tower factories in Brighton and Pueblo, Colo. Vestas is also building up research and development centers in Houston and Boston. It is trying to set up a network of local suppliers of castings, metal fabrication, composites, gears, bearings and electromechanical components through its purchasing office in Chicago."

"For wind turbine producers, what makes sense is building the huge machines where the demand is. Vestas' rival Siemens is also expanding in the United States. Siemens plans to double the capacity of its factory in Fort Madison, Iowa, which was only opened in 2007. It is also building a new plant in Hutchinson, Kan., and a research and development center in Boulder, Colo. Boulder was chosen because of its proximity to institutions such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaborative, a state-funded program including Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado, Boulder."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/08/25/25climatewire-favorable-political-winds-blow-eu-turbine-pr-51428.html

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Looks like we are getting some of the green jobs after all. :)

[CanonRay]

1. I've driven by that new plant in Pueblo

it is gigantic. Should provide a lot of stable well-paying jobs for years to come.

[boomerbust]

2. Pass health reform

Pass Cap and Trade and EFCA and you will see this economy explode.

[pampango]

4. Three tall orders, but you are right. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. What sucks is the NIMBY attitudes in the UK that means it's not worth building turbines here at all

That was the only turbine factory in the whole of the UK. And this is what happened to it:

All the blades Vestas produced on the Isle of Wight used to be exported to the United States -- at a transportation cost that exceeded the labor cost to make them. When the start of U.S. production made this trans-Atlantic voyage unnecessary, Vestas announced plans last year to convert the Isle of Wight production from 40-meter blades to 44-meter blades for a bigger wind turbine better suited for U.K. onshore and offshore wind energy production.

Vestas took the decision following the U.K. government's commitment last year to produce 35 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. That level is currently 4 percent.

But now the company says the local planning process for the construction of new onshore wind power plants in the United Kingdom "remains an obstacle to the development of a more favorable market," despite excellent wind conditions. "Since offshore wind power is still on a project basis, a large and stable market for onshore wind power is vital to secure a stable production flow," Vestas said.

At least 273 wind power projects totaling nearly 9,500 megawatts are stuck in the planning stages in Britain despite government promises to speed things up, according to the British Wind Energy Association. It takes an average of 15 to 20 months to win a wind farm permit in England and far longer in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the bulk of the wind farms are being developed.

[enviralment]

5. T. Boone

Pickens seems to like wind turbines I wonder why?
www.envirogy.wordpress.com

[Buzz Clik]

10. He's currently out of the business.

[treestar]

6. Now wait a minute, aren't those "their" jobs?

Why is that OK, when it's not OK for jobs to be moved from here to elsewhere?

[Nihil]

7. No, you don't understand ...

... hypocrisy isn't a problem when Americans do it ... :P
:hide:

[SKKY]

8. Well, look who wants to ask the tough questions!

:thumbsup:

[pampango]

9. The "our" jobs, "their" jobs discussion. It does get complicated.

It sounds like the market for these products is in the US (like with foreign car makers located here), so maybe that makes them "our" jobs? Of course, if some of these jobs produce things that end up being exported to other markets, I doubt that many here will consider those not to be "our" jobs. :) (We're the third largest exporter. I imagine that we consider the jobs that create those products to be "ours", too.)

Of course, one could argue that using the "where's the final market" rationale for determining whether jobs are "ours" or "theirs" is convenient for the country that represents the largest market in the world. It creates big problems for countries with small markets due to small populations or poverty or both. How do you create prosperity when there is no domestic market to sell into?

Do you think the whole "our" jobs/"their" jobs distinction is false or that Americans not consistent when they apply the distinction?

[alfredo]

11. If you had to choose between feeding your children, or your neighbor's

which would you choose?

Sometimes we have to think of our own interests. It's not fun to think of that or that way, but there are times when we have to put our interests first.

[pampango]

12. After you feed your children, do you feed your neighbor's?

And if you are determining who are "your children" based on nationality, how progressive is that? Sometimes I do think of my own interests and put them first over the interests of others, but they are not my finest moments (nor the most progressive).

I view the repubs as the party of "what's in it for me?" and the Democrats as the party of "what's in it for everyone?".

[alfredo]

13. The primary responsibility is to those who depend on you. It's what you do

after you have filled their needs. Altruism should expand beyond the family to the community. Altruism is seen as a dirty word to the Libertarians and movement conservatives.

[Psephos]

14. Hmm. That sounds a bit like what my conservative friends say about domestic policy

I am not implying that you're conservative. I am implying that selfishness is a universal human trait.

[alfredo]

15. I'd have to find some bud before going into the tension between selfishness and altruism.

[Psephos]

16. I'm with you there, brother. n/t

[alfredo]

17. I was starting to get some 60's flashbacks.

[Honeycombe8]

18. Well, that's not outsourcing, per our country's definition. That's just moving

your business to where there IS business for your business.

Outsourcing that we here in the U.S. decry is sending the factory and job to another country, for sales HERE in our country.

Sounds like what's being done there is a small company is closing down there because of a lack of business, and moving to the U.S. where there is more business. It will send its factory and jobs AND sell its products in that other country (the U.S.).

Outsourcing would be if that business sent its factory and jobs to the U.S., but still got most of its sales from Denmark. That's not the case.

[Honeycombe8]

19. I'd like a turbine for my home. Our govt gives us green energy tax credits...

but there's a total on the amount, I think, regardless of the type of green innovations you add. There's a list of the green innovations that will count. Personal home wind turbines is one of 'em. Much cheaper than solar panels, simpler to install. Not sure how much energy they save.

I wish I could get solar panels, but I can't afford that and wouldn't live long enuf to recoup the cost from energy savings. There's a house about 2 blocks from me w/solar panels, though. A modest home. Here in Dallas, TX. Amazing. Maybe the guy's in the solar business is how he could afford it.