Dec 8 2010
Siemens has unveiled its first nacelle, manufactured at its production facility in Hutchinson, recently. The four story 300,000 square foot plant currently employs around 130 workers and the number is likely to go up to 400 in a year.
The new nacelle weighed around 185,000 pounds, with its bigger sized generator, gears and axle appeared ready to be fixed over the turbine tower. The blades required for the nacelle will be made at its production facility in Fort Madison, Iowa. The new nacelle will be sent to the Lower Snake River wind farm, owned by Puget Sound Energy, in Washington, for installation.
René Umlauft, Siemens Renewable Energy Division’s CEO, said that his company is committed to internationalizing its wind power production. He added that currently, the company has seven production facilities over three countries and in two or three year’s period, the number of production facilities will go up to twelve from seven countries, thus moving its facilities closer to its clients. He explained that his company has plans to increase its Research and Development budget in 2011 by three fold and will raise it regularly to venture into new products such as direct drive wind turbines, to further reduce the cost of wind energy generation. He added that his company aims to achieve total grid parity with fossil fuels power generation.
Eric Spiegel, Siemens US’s president, recalled that the plant floor did not have anything 59 days back and said that the nacelle was produced in a record time. He explained that the plant has brought lot of hopes to the state in bringing an industrial cluster and currently Draka, a Dutch wire and cable manufacturing company, has shown interest to commence its facility at Hutchinson. He expressed optimism about more companies joining the cluster as demands picks up. He cautioned about the initiatives of China in making heavy investments in wind technology and explained the necessary of investing in better technologies to prevent buying it from outside.