Acciona, one of the world’s largest wind power developers, announced it will build its first wind turbine production plant in the United States, in the state of Iowa.
The project represents an investment of nearly $23 million and will produce approximately 250 wind turbines in 2008. Construction will begin next week, and is scheduled for completion in late 2007. Iowa ranks third in wind power output in the United States, behind Texas and California.
The 18,100 square-meter facility will be constructed on a 145,000 square-meter site Acciona purchased in April 2007. As part of its international expansion efforts, this will be Acciona’s fourth wind turbine assembly plant; two currently operate in Spain and one in China.
Acciona’s West Branch plant will supply wind turbines for wind farms located throughout North America and will provide the company, when it is operating at full capacity, with worldwide production capacity of approximately 1,740 wind turbines for a total of 2,610 MW per year.
The new facility will create 109 wind jobs at an average wage of $15.14 per hour.
The West Branch facility will use Acciona’s proprietary technology to produce its AW-1500 models, with rotor diameters of 77 and 82 meters for tower heights of 80 meters. The plant will be capable of manufacturing the company’s future 3 megawatt AW-3000 model turbine.
Of the more than 74,300 MW of wind power installed in the world as of December 31, 2006, Acciona has implemented 4,357 MW (nearly 6% of the world total).
About Acciona
Acciona Energy is a world leader in the renewables sector with 4,500 MW in different technologies. In wind power, it has installed 4,357 MW in 163 wind farms in 10 countries (3,133 MW are participated by the company). It has three biomass plants – one, a 25 MW straw-fired facility – and 59 MW in small hydro power plants. In the field of solar energy, it has installed 29 MW of photovoltaic power – including the largest plant in Spain – and the equivalent of 24 MW of solar thermal capacity. Acciona is also installing, in the state of Nevada, the largest solar thermal electric power plant built in the last 15 years. The company manufactures 1,500 kW wind turbines using in-house technology, and in the field of biofuels, it produces homologated-quality biodiesel from first-use vegetable oils and bioethanol.
Acciona Energy is a subsidiary of the Acciona Group (Madrid: ANA.MC), which has a market capitalization of $14.5 billion.
Loading...