CANWEA Event Highlights Industry Growth
The 24th Annual Canadian Wind Energy Association (CANWEA) Conference and Trade Show was held this past month in Vancouver, B.C. with the theme, "Fast Forward to Wind." At the keynote address, CANWEA President Robert Hornung announced that by the end of 2008 Canada will have utility-scale turbines operating in all ten provinces, and that total installed national capacity is expected to grow to 12,000 MW by 2016.
Exhibitors at the show numbered over 200, including current North American OEMs, GE, Acciona, DeWind, AAER, Northern, and Nordic Windpower. Also exhibiting were OEMs planning future operations—Vestas, Siemens, REPower, and Moventas. All report being busy creating new North American supply chains. Major component manufacturer exhibiting were Broadwind, ABB, DMI, TM4, and Svenborg.
The pace was different from AWEA's June event. The booths were less crowded, so the show had a more intimate feeling—allowing for longer, more detailed discussions.
Visit CANWEA's website for more details about next year's show being held in Toronto, Ontario on September 20th.
Award Winner Expands Wind Capabilities
Kalt Manufacturing Company, a family owned and operated precision machining facility that has been serving the wind industry for over two years, has announced plans for a major plant expansion. According to President Joseph Kalt, the company intends to increase the size of their North Ridgeville, Ohio facility by 50% to 48,000 square feet to accommodate their rapidly-growing energy business.
The addition will include 40-ton crane and will be temperature controlled year round to match the rest of the facility. The new space will be used for staging and storage of work in process, assembly, rebuilding, and to install additional CNC machining equipment to accommodate the growing renewable energy market.
Earlier this summer, Kalt Manufacturing completed installation of their latest piece of equipment, a new state of the art G & L CNC horizontal machining center with up to 165" of travel and 88,000 pound capacity for machining the large wind turbine and other high precision components. This machine complements their DEA Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) that can inspect components within a 56" x 75" x 200" measuring envelope, and a 70" x 105" x 240" working envelope DESA.
Kalt Manufacturing was featured at a recent Clipper Windpower Supplier forum, where it was named #1 in Quality out of over 100 suppliers.
Looking for New Business
Looking for a short course on opportunities for wind component manufacturing? Over 200 Ohio companies have found the answer already this fall by attending one of a series of Wind Supply Chain Workshops conducted at major universities around the state by the Great Lakes WIND Network.
Each half-day workshop provides useful information for consideration by owners and executives considering a strategic investment in wind component manufacturing capabilities. Topics covered include:
- market drivers, growth rates, and trends
- wind turbine OEMs in North America, present and future
- the anatomy of a wind turbine
- structure and tiers of the wind turbine supply chain
- what it takes to get an OEMs interested in your company
The cost of these Ohio workshops are being underwritten by the Ohio Department of Development to support new investment and job creation by its manufacturers. Additional services provided include on-site GLWN WIND Capabilities assessments and follow-up supply chain connection support. The next Supply Chain Workshop in Ohio will be November 18, 2008 at the Ohio State University. Go to WIRE-Net's website to register online today!
Supply Chain Workshops are part of Great Lakes WIND Network's mission to engage manufacturers and to expand the supply chain for wind components throughout North America.