Wind turbine factory to create 300 jobs

www.thestar.com
Aug 10 2010

Siemens Canada will set up a factory employing up to 300 people in Ontario to build blades for wind turbines. The plant's location hasn't been set, but it's likely to be somewhere between Hamilton and Windsor. Siemens senior vice president Bill Smith said in an interview. The company is looking both at existing facilities and greenfield locations and "we've got it down to a short list", Smith said. Siemens will be supplying the blades for a massive wind and solar power development led by Samsung C&T Corporation, with its partner Pattern Energy.

Samsung and the Korea Electric Power Co, have made a deal with the province - in return for $437 million in subsidies over 25 years - that requires them to build a total of four plants in Ontario to make wind and solar generating equipment. The province has predicted its clean energy program will create 50,000 jobs, and Energy Minister Brad Duguid said the blade factory is a "major milestone". The steel towers that support the blades will also be made in Ontario. Smith said.

The wind farms where the turbines will be installed will qualify for the province's "feed-in tariff" rates, paying on-shore wind farms 13.5 cents akW hour for power. (Market prices have averaged about 4 cents akW hour since Jan. 1, although the price was in the 12-cent range Tuesday because of high demand.) Wherever it is finally located, the new plant will need "tens of acres" to be able to make, store and ship blades up to 55 metres long. Smith said. That rules out downtown locations.

The big blades are destined for turbines that can generate 2.3MWs of power. That's triple the power generated by the turbine at Exhibition Place. While Samsung will be the key customer for the new plant at the outset, requiring 300 or more blades, "it's not exclusive to Samsung", Smith said. "It would supply blades or turbines to whoever wanted to install them" Smith said he hopes to make a decision on the location by the end of September. He expects the plant to be up and running by late next year, ready to supply blades for the 2012 construction season. He wouldn't go into financial details such as the price of the blades.