“We need to have manufacturing onshore to keep our costs down.
” —Don Furman, Iberdrola Renewables
United States Wind Power Capacity (MW) 6,740 MW as of 12/31/04
components, like most other parts, dry up. With new reports of wind turbine manufacturers re-starting production, those suppliers could see orders pick up soon, but the extent of their growth depends on the status of wind turbine manufacturing in the U.S. and how they compete with casting importers.
Domestic Vs. Foreign Sourcing One of the biggest challenges
facing domestic casting sources is competition from foreign companies. Before the U.S. made its wind energy surge, Europe was the established world leader in capacity, and many of the industry’s turbine manufacturers and developers stem from that area. The manufacturing infrastructure for wind in the U.S. is still young, accord- ing to Gangulee and other industry analysts, putting American metalcast- ers at a disadvantage. “There is a perception that there
Shown is the geographic distribution of installed wind energy capacity in the U.S. as of Dec. 31, 2004, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
United States Wind Power Capacity (MW) 35,086 MW as of 12/31/09
aren’t any [casting facilities] in the U.S. to hit the technical capabilities and size, and that’s not true,” said Joe Simko, president of Hodge Foundry, Greenville, Pa. Moreover, a supply base closer to
home is ideal, according to Ron Fur- man, senior vice president for develop- ment, transmission and policy for wind farm developer Iberdrola Renewables, Portland, Ore., “Transportation is a big cost,” he
said. “We need to have manufactur- ing onshore to keep our costs down.” Gangulee said Winergy began se-
riously looking for domestic casting sources two to three years ago and now is in the process of developing two domestic suppliers of gearbox parts and looking for more. “The OEMs in Europe have mi-
In five years, the U.S. added 28,500 MW of wind power capacity. Now, 14 states have more than 1,000 MW of capacity, including Indiana, which had almost no capacity two years ago.
Table 1. Major Wind Turbine Manufacturers in 2009 Company GE Energy Vestas
Country of Origin U.S.
Siemens
Mitsubishi Suzlon Clipper Gamesa
Denmark Germany Japan India U.S.
Spain 38 Metal Casting Design anD PurChasing
MW Installed in the U.S. 3,933
1,488.12 1,161.5 751.4 651.6 605 600
grated to the U.S. and are looking for local content,” Gangulee said. “This isn’t about Buy American. It’s sheer logistics. When you are export- ing castings, the lead time is large, currency exposure is high and the response time to react to problems is slow. When you look at total landed cost, which includes freight, handling and base price, local content would be better.” Still, Winergy, whose parent com-
pany is Germany-based Siemens, sources a majority of its cast ductile iron planetary carriers and torque arms from Europe and Brazil, although the
May/June 2010
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