Investors in Manitowoc have ponied up about 60 million to outfit an old steel fabrication facility with new equipment to weld up wind turbine towers. They intend to produce about one tower every 2 days from material supplied by the wind turbine manufacturer. In other words, Tower Tech is supplied the steel plate and flange rings, and then they weld them together. They are intending to procure the steel for their next order of 57 towers for Gamesa.
Cleveland seems to me to have a competitive advantage over Manitowoc because of Mital's presence here. If the steel can avoid unnecessary shipping and handling, and perhaps could even be rolled into cylinders hot, and then heat treated, this could add to the bottom line. Along with funding the dream of turbines out on Lake Erie, the Cleveland Foundation should be urging the Cuyahoga County Commissioners, and the Greater Cleveland Partnership, to fund a study to determine the feasibility of constructing a wind turbine tower fabrication facility in the Cuyahoga valley next to Mital That's were the permanent jobs will be, not out on the Lake.
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