European wind-energy firms look to US

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By MB-BigB | April 29, 2007

While the US has led the world in installing wind turbines for the last two years, it still ranks below Germany and Spain in total wind power production, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. This growth, and a favorable tax environment, are causing European wind energy companies like Portuguese utility EDP-Energias de Portugal SA, Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Germany’s Siemens AG, and Spain’s Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica S.A. to invest in the US for continued growth.

“[Gamesa's] plant in Windsor, Colo., is expected to be completed early next year and is designed to produce 1,200 wind-turbine blades per year, enough to power about 200,000 households. Meanwhile, German industrial giant Siemens AG has taken a shuttered truck trailer factory in Fort Madison, Iowa, and turned it into a factory that makes 150-foot blades for its wind turbines. And Gamesa, which bought Minneapolis wind-farm developer Navitas Energy Inc. in 2002, signed a $300 million deal last summer to make 132 wind turbines for Royal Dutch Shell P.L.C.’s wind-development arm.”