Energy Composites Corporation (OTCBB:ENCC ) announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the City of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin to acquire a 54-acre parcel for the purpose of building a 350,000 square foot composites fabrication plant for manufacturing wind turbine blades.
The City and the Company will reach a final definitive agreement before June 1, 2009, after which ECC will commence the construction of the plant.
ECC said securing the property is an important, early step in the execution of its WindFiber™ composites-in-wind-energy program. WindFiber™ is the strategic umbrella under which ECC will carry out its wind-related innovation, engineering, customer proposition, production and services planning, and logistics activities.
The LOI is subject to the approval of the Wisconsin Rapids Common Council, which is expected to act on the agreement in the near future.
Sam Fairchild, ECC’s CEO, stated that, “Our goal is to deliver value across all three wind energy channels–manufacturing, servicing and supplying. Today’s agreement with the City places us in good stead to have our blade plant up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2010.”
Fairchild added that, “We are currently working with our local college, MidState, to establish a training program now specializing in blade fabrication techniques as well as basic composites fabrication. We are working to establish a certification program as a part of WindFiber™ that will ensure that we have a strong pool of certified associates ready on Day One to make the blade plant productive. We believe that we will deliver a capacity of 1,500 blades annually out that plant, and we hope to ramp up to that rate of production by the end of 2010.”
ECC operates an automated 73,000 sq. ft. climate-controlled manufacturing facility in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, employing advanced composite materials to design, engineer and manufacture complex composite structures, vessels and processing systems for a range of clean-tech applications that include: wind energy system components, flue gas desulfurization for power plants, infrastructure for bio-fuel storage and processing, infrastructure for managing waste water and drinking water storage, advanced municipal utilities infrastructure, and caustic material storage and handling systems for the petrochemical, mining and the pulp and paper industries. E
CC also provides 24/7 field service crews nationwide for wind energy system composites maintenance, repair and overhaul; industrial retrofit, shutdown and maintenance; system installation; and repair and inspection services.