he wind energy momentum of the Midwest has driven a leading wind turbine manufacturing supplier to Minnesota. Finland's Moventas, a manufacturer of wind turbine gears, plans to build an 80,000-sq.-ft. (7,432-sq.-m.) factory near Faribault, a city of 21,000 located about 45 miles (72 km.) south of the Twin Cities.
      The global wind energy market is breezing along with a growth rate of about 30 percent, with a good portion coming in the U.S. Moventas' move will put the company in good position to continue its own impressive growth spurt, says its top executive.
      "The Midwest is a good wind turbine market," says Ilkka Hakala, president and CEO of Moventas. "Several of our customers have assembly operations in the Midwest."
      Hakala says the company's site search took nearly a year and combed sites in Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin before Moventas chose Faribault for its first U.S. manufacturing site. Moventas plans to employ about 100 in assembly and testing processes. The company expects to break ground on the project this fall, in the Met-Con Business Park just off I-35, and begin manufacturing operations by the end of 2009. Moventas, which also produces industrial gears in its Finland plants, already operates service facilities in Oregon, Texas and South Carolina. The Faribault site will serve as the company's North American headquarters.
      "We believe there is a good labor pool in the Faribault area for the mechanical engineering skills we need," Hakala says. "From a supply point of view, the Midwest is a good supply base for the components we will need."
      Moventas will receive incentives offered under the state's Job Opportunity Building Zone program, which offers tax-free development for companies locating or expanding in the state.
      Hakala says proximity to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was another major consideration. He believes the wind industry will continue to thrive in Minnesota and surrounding states. He says growth in the wind sector could dictate further expansion by Moventas in the U.S., but time will tell.
      "The U.S. is a big strategic market for us, and we want to be a major player," Hakala says.
      The Minnesota project is part of a global US$145-million expansion plan. Moventas is also building a new wind turbine gear factory in Jyvaskyla, Finland. The company currently employs about 1,300 people worldwide.       Minnesota's diverse wind-based economy ripples through the state in the form of manufacturing, logistics and energy production. The state currently ranks fourth in installed wind power capacity behind Texas, California and Iowa, according to the latest figures from the American Wind Energy Association. As of mid-2008, Minnesota had 1,366.15 MW in installed capacity with nearly 250 more MW in development. Minnesota ranks ninth among states in potential wind energy capacity.
      Minnesota ranked fourth in the amount spent on wind turbine technology in 2007, with $607 million, according to BCC Research, a Massachusetts-based market analysis firm. BCC projects that figure will drop to $142 million in 2008 before soaring to nearly $2.8 billion in 2013. Minnesota is also a big user of wind power, which currently provides about 4.6 percent of the state's energy needs, ranking ithe state second behind Iowa.
      The Port of Duluth-Superior serves as a major logistics conduit for the wind energy sector. Wind turbine parts destined for Midwestern plants come into the port, while blades made in North America leave the port for global destinations. The port recently served as the transshipping point for 54 wind turbine blades destined for a new wind generator plant in northern Brazil. The 37-meter (40.5-yd.) blades were manufactured by LM Glasfiber in Grand Forks, N.D.       The port has been handling wind project cargo dating back to 2004, but traffic has been on the rise of late, says Jonathan Lamb, vice president, operations at Lake Superior Warehousing Co., terminal operator for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. He expects the port to continue to stay busy with wind-related traffic.
      "In the last three years, there has been a bigger uptick in the amount of business volume," Lamb says. The rise has come in both inbound and outbound traffic, but primarily inbound, he says.
      Lamb says the port is serving wind equipment manufacturers as far west as Montana and as far south as Oklahoma, shipping smaller components, plus nacelles, tower components and blades. In-bound parts reach the port by ocean-going vessels and are shipped by either truck or rail to U.S. destinations. He says the port's multi-modal capability makes it ideal to serve the wind sector.
      Transporting wind energy equipment requires a special expertise and coordination with state transportation agencies. Caravans of specially built trucks, accompanied by escort vehicles and state patrol cars, have been heading out of the Port of Duluth nearly every morning since June, loaded with wind turbine components destined for wind energy farms across the Midwest. That pace figures to intensify this fall, as manufacturers try to complete shipments before winter.
      The nacelles weigh more than 180,000 pounds. Top tower sections alone are more than 100 feet (30.5 m.) long, with blades measuring up to 150 feet (45.7 m.). Permits to haul the majority of over-weight/over-dimensional loads require at least one escort vehicle and a state trooper. ATS Wind Energy Services, a division of St. Cloud-based Anderson Trucking Service, is the largest wind transportation provider in North America, touting on its Web site that it has safely moved more than 35,000 wind energy components.
      Minnesota has more than 60 operating wind farms of all sizes, with more on the way. Most are in the southern part of the state. The wind construction boom has benefited Minneapolis-based Mortensen Construction, which as of the end of 2007 had built 34 percent of U.S. wind energy capacity. Another Minnesota construction firm, Avon-based D.H. Blattner, ranks second in wind farm construction.
      India-based Suzlon opened a factory in Pipestone in late 2006 to produce rotor blades. That facility has grown rapidly and now employs about 500.
      Minnesota's wind sector also includes St. Paul-based Wind Logics, the nation's largest modeler of wind currents; Columbia Gear Corp., which manufactures wind blades in Avon; and Remmele Engineering in the Twin Cites, which manufactures machine castings for the wind energy industry.