IDAHO
From Site Selection magazine, January 2009
Pocatello Area Carves a
Renewable Energy Niche
Renewable Energy Niche
Gateway West Business Center
I
daho is serious about making and using renewable energy. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has mandated that 25 percent of the state's energy usage should come from renewable energy by 2025, and two recent projects will contribute to that effort and to building a renewable energy manufacturing cluster, particularly in the Pocatello area in the southeast part of the state.
Ogden, Utah-based Petersen, Inc., is opening a new facility in Pocatello's Gateway West Business Center, which is on the site of a former naval ordnance facility. The steel fabrication company is occupying a 203,000-sq.-ft. (18,860-sq.-m.) building on a 15-acre (6-hectare) site where it will manufacture wind towers. The company has already hired 60 people and plans to bring on 50 to 75 more in the coming months.
In March 2008, Nordic Windpower, Ltd. a manufacturer of two-bladed utility-scale wind turbines, announced a new turbine manufacturing facility for the North American market in Pocatello. The project is creating more than 160 new technical, engineering, and administrative jobs and additional positions at the company's operational centers in California and the U.K.
"We are extremely pleased to locate Nordic Windpower's North American manufacturing facility in Idaho, following a comprehensive review of many good sites across the United States," said Steve Taber, Nordic Windpower CEO and co-founder, at the announcement. "Pocatello has a favorable cost of operations, and an excellent work force and location central to potential customers and transportation. These advantages will benefit our customers in competitive pricing for very high reliability. With the invaluable assistance at the state and local level, Nordic is ramping up rapidly to meet demand that is outpacing production across the industry."
Nordic can expand up to four times the size of its leased 42,786-sq.-ft. (3,975-sq.-m.) facility, as it ramps up production to meet demand of large and small developers and community wind projects. Production commenced in the third quarter of 2008, and the company plans to produce at least 20 turbines monthly by September 2009.
ISU Facility Is Central to Region's Energy Industry Ambitions
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daho State University is another local economic development engine inasmuch as it is a major local employer and an incubator of future employees in key industry sectors, especially renewable energy, for Idaho and elsewhere.
In November, the university's newly renovated Energy Systems Technology and Education Center (ESTEC) opened, after the team of Idaho State University's College of Technology, Idaho National Laboratory and Partners for Prosperity received grant funding totaling more than $2.5 million.
ESTEC's primary mission is to support the energy sector in offsetting the growing national shortage of energy systems technicians. It is expected to facilitate regional economic competitiveness, increased job growth and provide other new energy-related opportunities.
"ESTEC will be a cornerstone of Idaho State University's growing role in educating skilled technicians to operate modern energy systems," said ISU President Arthur C. Vailas, Ph.D. "Just as Idaho is playing an increasingly important role in energy research, ISU is poised to educate the work force that science, industry and government will need to succeed."
ESTEC's hands-on, laboratory-based curriculum is unique in that students are trained on a variety of electrical-generation sources, including fossil, nuclear and renewable. Idaho National Laboratory has been an active partner in the Center's programs since its inception. It has given the Center access to private utility-sector organizations and technical expertise, provided technical support in developing the Center's curriculum and contributed curriculum developed within INL.
"ESTEC offers a unique approach to educating students by providing the specific knowledge and skills needed in electrical power generation" explains R. Scott Rasmussen, ESTEC's Executive Director. "The skills requirements have been developed in partnership with energy utilities and vendors to assure that program graduates enter the workforce with the precise skills required by industry and are ready to be productive energy systems employees."
Site Selection Online – The magazine of Corporate Real Estate Strategy and Area Economic Development.
©2009 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. SiteNet data is from many sources and not warranted to be accurate or current.
©2009 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. SiteNet data is from many sources and not warranted to be accurate or current.