Hope to see this company up and running soon--more jobs, more families and more demand for houses in Brandon and the surrounding area.---Todd
By Jill Meier, Brandon Valley Challenger • July 28, 2010
BRANDON – Wind-tower production at the 115,000-square-foot Tower Tech Systems plant in the Corson Development Park remains on hold, a company spokesman said.
Production won’t begin until the Wisconsin-based company secures enough contracts for towers.
“Upon receipt of sufficient customer orders, the plant will become fully operational,” said John Segvich, director of investor and marketing communications for the parent company, Broadwind Energy Inc.
Dennis Olson, Brandon’s assistant city administrator, said company representatives have indicated they will be in production by the end of the year.
“They’re waiting for contracts,” Olson said. “They’re very positive that things are going to turn around.”
Olson said when Broadwind initiated its plans to build a plant, the company had a two-year contract in place with General Electric. GE later backed out, eliminating the immediate need for production at the South Dakota plant.
The Tower Tech project at the Corson park was put on hold for eight months in 2009 while Broadwind built a similar plant in Texas and waited for the wind-energy industry to improve.
Construction resumed Sept. 1, 2009, and wrapped up earlier this year, Segvich said.
“Construction of our wind turbine tower manufacturing facility in Brandon was completed,” he said.
Company officials have said they plan to employ 150 people at the facility, which would make the company one of the four largest employers in the area.
The equipment to produce wind towers is in place, but Segvich wouldn’t say when staff would be hired.
Earlier this year, Dave Hahne of North Sioux City was hired to be the plant manager.
Tower Tech specializes in fabricating large, heavy towers that support wind-turbine blades. The plant has the capacity to produce 150 of the three-section towers per year.
The Brandon plant is the company’s third manufacturing facility. The others are in Manitowoc, Wis., and Abilene, Texas.
Henry Carlson Co. was the general contractor for both the Brandon and Abilene projects. The plants are some of the biggest buildings – 1,150 feet by 100 feet – the construction company has built, said Jerry Fromm, who managed both projects.
They’re also the longest. The plant is nearly four times as long as a football field, with walls 51 feet high.
Once in production, assembly of the 200-foot-tall towers will begin at one end of the building and be completed at the other end.
The plant sits on 41 acres in the Corson Development Park on the north side of Interstate 90.
Broadwind executives said they chose the site near Brandon to produce towers near major wind and energy projects, which in turn would reduce transportation costs.
Several wind farms are under construction in western Minnesota, western Iowa and in Brookings and Deuel counties in South Dakota.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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