A helluva good reason to move to Jonesboro

 A Nordex-built wind farm in Canada.

 

Jonesboro and northeast Arkansas just got a whole lot more attractive last week, thanks to the announcement by a major player in the wind energy game that it will build its U.S. manufacturing facility here.

Nordex, AG, a German company that manufactures wind turbines for use worldwide, announced on Friday that it will employ about 700 people at a facility to be build on 187 acres in the Craighead Technology Park at Jonesboro.

Jonesboro has been an odd little island of relative prosperity throughout the recent economic downturn and Nordex's $100 million plant, which is expected to pump more than $24 million in payroll money into the local economy may make this place recession-proof.

The growth of wind energy in the U.S. has been explosive. Wind farms are popping up like mushrooms from Texas to North Dakota and officials in New Jersey recently announced plans for offshore wind farms out where oceanic winds are constant and abundant. Given this country's headlong rush toward alternative energy sources, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which Nordex won't have more orders than it can fill.

Gov. Mike Beebe was in town for the announcement by  Ralf Sigrist, president and CEO of Nordex, USA, Inc.

Nordex, Sigrist told a capacity crowd at St. Bernards Auditorium Friday, "is one of the fastest-growing companies in its industry with a compound annual growth rate of 50% in the last 4 years and revenues of almost $1 billion in 2007."

He continued: "Our expertise is in large-scale wind turbines. We are a technological leader in multi-megawatt wind power systems and, to date, we have produced more than 1,000 of these multi-megawatt turbines around the globe.

"Turbine assembly here in Jonesboro will begin end of next year and as early as 2010 the first locally produced 2.5 MW N80/90 wind turbine will be installed in the U.S. Our $100 million investment will go toward establishing annual production capacity of 300 wind turbines by 2012 (equaling 750 megawatts of nominal capacity per annum). By 2010, we want to invest two thirds of our investment in rotor blade production. With the rotor blade production being operational at full capacity in 2012 we will have over 700 Arkansans as a part of our Nordex USA team. That is nearly 1/3 of our current global workforce. You can see how important Jonesboro is for us.

"Today is only the beginning. Our goal is to become one of the leading wind turbine manufacturers, generating 20% of our revenue here in the U.S. And thanks to this partnership, we are one significant step closer.

"Looking toward the future, the prospects for our industry remain very encouraging. Wind is the world’s fastest-growing energy source with an average annual growth rate of 29% over the last 10 years. It is also the most affordable renewable energy and at some locations simply the most competitive. Power generation costs have fallen by 50% in the last 15 years, moving the generation costs of wind power system close to grid parity. The worldwide installed capacity is estimated to more than triple over the next 5 years to reach 290 gigawatts by 2012," Sigrist said.

But why Jonesboro?

"We started this process more than a year ago," Sigrist said. "We have looked at over 35 different prospects. We finally chose Jonesboro because it provides the perfect environment for us as a renewable energy company with its central location, ideal infrastructure, its training facilities and its skilled workforce. But, in the end, it was the people here, the Governor, city officials and their great team that convinced us that we had made the absolute right decision. I thank you and look forward to a long, fruitful relationship."

What strikes me as so incredibly cool about Nordex is that they not only make the wind turbines, they also get involved in the planning and construction of wind farms, down to the point where a Nordex installation can be a turnkey operation where they create the whole thing and then turn it over to the customer ready to generate electricity for the power grid.

As a result of this project, Jonesboro and northeast Arkansas can also expect several parts and components suppliers for Nordex to be drawn to the region.

“We are very excited that Nordex has selected Jonesboro,” said Mark Young, president and CEO of the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce.  “They will be a tremendous asset to our community and Northeast Arkansas.”

So if I were an industrial electrician or a very creative designer in some economic backwater spot like, say, Crawfordsville, Ind., I'd give some very serious thought to moving to Jonesboro.

Just sayin'.

If you want more information about Nordex, check out the company Web site here.