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Siemens Selects Iowa Site for Its First Wind Turbine Blade Manufacturing Facility in the U.S.; Will Help Meet Strong U.S. Demand for Clean, Renewable Energy.


ORLANDO, Fla. & FORT MADISON, Iowa Fort Madison, situated on the Mississippi River, is a city in and one of the county seats of Lee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 10,715 at the 2000 census.

The city is home to the Iowa State Penitentiary - the state's maximum security prison for men.
 -- Siemens Power Generation announced today that it has executed a purchase agreement for a U.S. wind turbine turbine, rotary engine that uses a continuous stream of fluid (gas or liquid) to turn a shaft that can drive machinery.

A water, or hydraulic, turbine is used to drive electric generators in hydroelectric power stations.
 blade manufacturing site located in Fort Madison, Iowa. The manufacturing facility will be established in an existing 224,000-square-foot building complex on nearly 127 acres in Lee County, which is located in the southeastern area of the state, close to the Mississippi river Mississippi River

River, central U.S. It rises at Lake Itasca in Minnesota and flows south, meeting its major tributaries, the Missouri and the Ohio rivers, about halfway along its journey to the Gulf of Mexico.
. The facility is expected to employ an estimated 250 people. This new manufacturing facility in Fort Madison Fort Madison, city (1990 pop. 11,618), seat of Lee co., SE Iowa, on the Mississippi River; inc. 1838. Fort Madison, a U.S. trading post, was established in 1808 as the first fort west of the Mississippi; it was named for James Madison, then President.  will allow Siemens to meet the strong U.S. demand for wind power generators in the future. Closing for the facility is scheduled in the coming weeks.

"This will be Siemens' first wind turbine production facility in the U.S. and will further expand the capacities of our worldwide manufacturing network," said Randy Zwirn, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board.  of Siemens Power Generation, Inc. and member of the PG Group Executive Management. "Since the initial acquisition of Bonus Energy A/S in 2004, we expanded our existing blade plant in Aalborg / Denmark, opened an additional factory in Denmark, and now this is another important step in our strategy to build our global presence in the wind energy business, and serve growing markets," added Zwirn.

The Fort Madison facility will be upgraded and expanded in order to more suitably meet the needs of the company's wind turbine business. The first blades to be manufactured at the Fort Madison facility will be for the company's 2.3-MW wind turbines, which incorporate the Siemens-patented IntegralBlade technology. With this technology, the blade is cast in one piece in a single step from glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy resin epoxy resin (ēpok´sē, pok´sē),
n See resin, epoxy.
 in a closed, environmentally compatible process. Series production of rotor rotor: see generator; motor, electric.  blades for wind turbines is scheduled to start in Fort Madison in the first half of 2007. Due the site's close proximity to water, rail and road transportation options, and its central location in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , it is ideal for wind turbine blade manufacturing where logistics are critically important due to the massive size of the blades.

"Our state lies in the center of the largest wind generation region in the U.S., and therefore we're uniquely positioned to serve this promising market," said Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack Thomas James Vilsack (born December 13, 1950) is an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and served as the 40th Governor of the state of Iowa. He was first elected in 1998 and re-elected to a second four-year term in 2002. . "As a leader in alternative energy production, Iowans understand the enormous opportunities this announcement represents, and we look forward to adding Siemens wind turbine technology to our sources of renewable, clean power."

The state of Iowa, Lee County and the city of Fort Madison pooled resources to provide an attractive incentive package to assist with the start-up effort. The Iowa Economic Development Board approved direct assistance from the Economic Development Set-Aside program and tax incentives from the High Quality Jobs Creation program as part of the agreement to locate the project in the state.

"Siemens has long been committed to bringing clean, efficient power generation options to the energy market. Today, as part of our environmental care strategy, our portfolio offers an array of efficient and environmentally compatible solutions, including wind power. By expanding our wind power manufacturing capacity into the U.S., we will substantially increase our ability to competitively serve this important market, which is projected to triple by the year 2020," said Zwirn.

With the U.S. Department of Energy's goal of obtaining six percent of U.S. electricity from wind by 2020 and the growing public demand for clean energy, it is expected that wind energy will contribute an increasing amount of the nation's energy supply.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley Charles Ernest "Chuck" Grassley (born September 17 1933) is the senior United States Senator from Iowa. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was chairman of the Finance Committee from January to June 2001, and from January 2003 to December 2006 and currently serves as the , chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and author of the wind energy tax credit commented, "With the recently adopted wind energy tax credits, we're well positioned to increase the renewable power generation sources in the U.S. in the future, and with this new Siemens facility, Iowa will be at the epicenter ep·i·cen·ter  
n.
1. The point of the earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.

2. A focal point: stood at the epicenter of the international crisis.
 of supplying clean, alternative energy sources."

Employment recruiting to support the ramp-up of the facility is expected to begin immediately and continue through the end of the year. The company will be recruiting management, administrative and technical support personnel, as well as an estimated 200 production and maintenance employees required to manufacture the wind turbine blades. The addition of these jobs will double Siemens' existing employment base in Iowa, and all will be new jobs in Iowa specifically created to support the Siemens wind manufacturing facility.

The Power Generation Group (PG), a unit of Siemens AG Siemens AG

German electrical-equipment manufacturer. The first Siemens company, Siemens & Halske, was founded in Berlin in 1847 to build telegraph installations.
, is one of the premier entities in the international power generation sector. In fiscal 2005 (which ended September 30), Siemens PG posted sales amounting to approximately EUR EUR

In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Euro.

Notes:
The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion.
8.1 billion and received new orders totaling EUR10.9 billion. Group profit amounted to EUR951 million. On September 30, 2005, PG had a work force of approximately 33,500 worldwide. Further information at: http://www.siemens.com/powergeneration.

(C) 2006 Siemens Power Generation
COPYRIGHT 2006 Business Wire
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Business Wire
Article Type:Company overview
Date:Aug 17, 2006
Words:803
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