The Answer Is Blow'n In The Wind
posted 7th Sept 2000

Power While the growth of the wind industry and other renewable energy industries has long been touted as a source of high-tech jobs, a recent flurry of wind projects has brought jobs to some relatively low-tech U.S. companies. During the first two weeks of August, Beaird Industries of Shreveport, La., a subsidiary of Industrial Holdings, Inc., received an order for wind turbine towers valued "in excess of $55 million," the company says, while Trinity Industries of Dallas, Tex., said it is creating a new subsidiary, Trinity Structural Towers, Inc., to compete for business in the fast-growing industry. Wind energy was the world's fastest-growing energy source during the 1990s, with an annual average growth rate of more than 25%, and its pace has accelerated in recent years.

The American Wind Energy Association says it expects U.S. installed wind generating capacity to increase by 40% to 60% by the end of next year -- an increase that would amount to approximately $1 billion to $1.5 billion in new construction. "American industry and American workers and farmers are finally beginning to cash in on the promise of wind energy," said AWEA executive director Randall Swisher, "and recent runups in the prices of oil and natural gas have helped to emphasize the value of wind -- an energy source whose 'fuel' is free and therefore immune to speculation in the energy markets. "The Great Plains states, from Minnesota to Texas to Wyoming, are a vast 'Saudi Arabia of wind,'where many billions of dollars worth of wind equipment will someday be installed to generate electricity without air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions," Swisher said. FPL Energy LLC, a major wind energy developer, placed the order with Beaird Industries.

It calls for Beaird to build up to 800 wind turbine towers, each 50 meters tall, by November 2001. The first 242 towers are slated for an FPL project in West Texas. Beaird has also sought and received certification from a leading certification agency, Germany's Germanischer Lloyd, for the tower design. Trinity Industries said in announcing the decision to create its new tower-building subsidiary that it, too, had recently booked its first major order from a wind turbine manufacturer for the supply of towers. .