Company gets 2nd wind
Demand increases for turbine towers

By CELINDA EMISON
Abilene Reporter-News
San Angelo Standard-Times
March 21, 2005

COLEMAN - The winds of change are blowing in the electric generation industry, and that is fueling growth for Wind Clean.

The company, which produces towers for wind turbines, weathered a dry spell that saw it shut down for about a year-and-a-half. Now, with production revved up again, and with more wind generation projects on the horizon, the forecast for the company is sunny.

Wind Clean opened in 2001 and grew to 132 employees. However, an economic downtown and delays in federal legislation for tax credits for wind generation hurt Wind Clean. Its workforce dropped until manufacturing ceased and all its employees were laid off.

Last July, the company went back into production in anticipation of passage by Congress of a tax credit of 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour for wind-generated electricity. Since that time, Wind Clean has produced 100 towers for its customers, both locally and nationwide.

"The demand accelerated rapidly," company Vice President Tim Manley said.

One of Wind Clean's customers has been FPL Energy, which last month completed its Callahan Divide project in Taylor County, consisting of 76 1.5-megawatt turbines. Its sister company, Florida Power & Light, has a property tax abatement request pending before Taylor County commissioners for a far more ambitious project, a proposal to install 230 1.5-megawatt turbines.

Abilene, 90 miles northeast of San Angelo, is the Taylor County seat.

Manley said he and partners James Hartley, Wind Clean's president, and Ken Davis, another a vice president, are optimistic about the growth of the company and of the industry. They are monitoring the outcome of proposed legislation in the Legislature. At least eight bills supporting renewable energy have been introduced, although some bills are duplicates.

"In the last five years, renewable wind energy is becoming a viable industry," Manley said. "The expectation is that the energy bill(s) will be passed, and we will have incentives to make it more viable."

Wind Clean officials are also actively seeking to grow the company through diversification.

"We can do anything that has to do with coating large steel items, and we can do that for other types of businesses," Manley said.

The Wind Clean plant is running at between 40 percent and 50 percent capacity. Manley said if business grows, Wind Clean has the capability to produce 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To run around the clock, Manley said, 40 to 50 more employees would have to be hired.

Wind Clean averages 85 employees, with positions such as "blasters," who prepare the steel towers for painting; painters; assembly personnel; electricians and mechanics; as well as heavy-equipment operators. The jobs pay from $7 to $20 per hour.

"Over the past year, at our peak, we have had up to 116 employees," Manley said.

Trinity Industries, which manufactures turbine towers in the Dallas area, ships raw metal towers to Wind Clean in Coleman. There, crews sandblast, paint and install electronics and equipment in the tower shafts, which rise more than 200 feet high.

It takes about a week to construct one tower, Manley said. Each tower comes in three portions - a base, mid-section and the top. Once completed, the towers are shipped to Wind Clean's customers, where they will be set up at wind-energy sites.

Members of the Sweetwater-based West Texas Wind Energy Consortium are tentatively scheduled to tour the Wind Clean plant Wednesday, Executive Director Greg Wortham said. The consortium aims to help shape economic development - such as manufacturing components for wind energy projects in West Texas.

No firm timetable has been established for future projects and possible plant expansion, Manley said.

"We're talking well beyond 2005," he said.

Design of wind turbine towers will change over the next few years, Manley said. One likely change will be to larger towers to support larger turbines that generate more electricity.

support future Wind Clean expansion, but "nothing permanent has been put in place yet," Manley said.

Coleman Mayor Nick Poldrack welcomes the resurgence of Wind Clean as one of the city's major employers.

"It is a big economic boom to the city of Coleman," he said.

Reporter-News staff writer Jerry Reed contributed to this report.

©2005 San Angelo Standard-Times

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