WORLD WIND ENERGY NET

Keokuk will move from Iowa's industrial sidelines into the limelight Wednesday with the announcement of a major wind turbine tower manufacturing plant planned for the city's Mississippi Riverfront. The new industry is expected to provide about 400 jobs in the area.

Gov. Chet Culver, who is making a “Bringing New Jobs to Iowa Day” loop through the state, will join Keokuk Mayor Dave Gudgel, billionaire entrepreneur Ken Hendricks of Beloit, Wis., and a host of dignitaries to discuss the plant at 11 a.m. at Southeastern Iowa Port Terminal, 2301 Twin Rivers Drive, Keokuk.

Hendricks Holdings owns the port terminal and the tower plant coming to Keokuk.

“I look at this as truly a beginning,” Gudgel said. “When you look at the wind energy industry, there are so many satellite businesses that produce the integral parts of the blade mechanism. You see the blades and the housings are quite large, as big as a small cabin on a passenger plane, and you look at those long structures, towers, holding it all up.”

The towers are 250-feet tall and require special ladders for installation of the towers' inner workings.

“Then you think about all of the painting and the internals of the towers,” Gudgel said. “In the housings are the gears and the brains of the mechanism, all the computerization. There literally is a plethora of parts that make up a wind power turbine, or windmill if you will.

“(Fort Madison Mayor) Steve Ireland and I, our objective is to entice as many of those suppliers to Southeast Iowa as we can. It only makes sense. This announcement of ours is just the first in attracting value-added industry to Southeast Iowa.”

Iowa has about 1,000 wind turbines in use that are capable of supplying electricity to approximately 250,000 homes, according to Iowa Department of Economic Development representative Shawn Rolland. Plans are in the works to double energy production through wind turbines by 2015.

“Iowa is third in the nation in wind energy production,” Rolland said.

In addition to the wind turbine tower plant, Hendricks will detail his plans Wednesday for Southeast Iowa Port Terminal, Gudgel said. Construction is likely to begin on the port terminal soon.

“The port terminal can accommodate any or all kinds of freight, coming in or going out,” Gudgel said. “The terminal would work with companies coming to Keokuk and Fort Madison because they can build in Lee County and take advantage of the barge terminal year round.”

The new Hendricks Holdings tower plant will be an addition to his growing industrial portfolio in the area, including the port terminal, Hendricks River Logistics, LLC, formerly owned by Orba-Johnson Transshipment Co., and property along Twin Rivers Drive.

Hendricks also owns a plant in Denmark that produces wind-turbine components.

Keokuk is using some of the tools community leaders have been putting into place for the last several years, especially the Southeast Iowa Regional Economic and Port Authority. The board, which was created in 2006 by joint action by Keokuk, Fort Madison and the Lee County Board of Supervisors, is the first port authority in Iowa.

The port authority board has applied for Foreign Trade Zone designation and awaits federal approval. Foreign trade zone designation allows businesses and industries in the zone to defer, eliminate or reduce custom duties in the course of manufacturing or trade.

The new wind power related industry in Keokuk will be the second wind power-related energy manufacturer to locate in Lee County since the formation of the port.

Wind energy giant Siemens, headquartered in Germany, opened a wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in 2006 at the former Wabash plant located between Montrose and Fort Madison.

Culver's trip to Keokuk is part of a “Bringing New Jobs to Iowa Day” abbreviated loop through the state.

The first stop is at the Iowa Venture Capital and Entrepreneur Conference in Des Moines, where Culver will announce recipients of the Targeted Small Business Program, which is designed to promote the creation of small businesses by female, minority and disabled entrepreneurs.

After the announcement in Keokuk, he will return attend the Strategy Academy on Energy and Environment policy conference at Drake University in Des Moines.

“You can't talk about bringing new jobs to Iowa without discussing renewable energy,” Culver said.