Spanish engineering company Ingeteam has announced plans to open a new $15 million wind and solar energy component manufacturing facility in Wisconsin.

The firm said yesterday it would be hiring 275 staff for the facility in Milwaukee, which is set to begin production in January 2011.

The 100,000 square foot plant in the Menomonee River Valley will manufacture Indar wind power generators, the part of a wind turbine that turns the motion from the blades into electricity.

Ingeteam said the facility would be capable of producing generators equivalent to 7,500 megawatts of capacity each year for the US market.

The generators, which will come in sizes ranging from 1MW to 5MW output, currently represent 11% of the world market, according to Ingeteam.

The new factory will also produce solar inverters, which convert Direct Current (DC) electricity generated by solar panels into Alternating Current (AC) power suitable for the grid.

The inverters produced will range from 2.5kW systems suitable for home solar panels up to 500kW systems appropriate for utility-scale solar plants.

Presence

The new Milwaukee plant will build on Ingeteam’s existing US presence, which includes an operations and maintenance office in Mequon, Wisconsin, and a sales office in Santa Clara, California, which supplies solar photovoltaic inverters.

Aitor Sotes, CEO of Ingeteam Inc, said having a US facility would enable his company to make the most of growth in the US markets for wind and solar power, as well as allowing the firm to better serve its existing customers in the US.

“We selected Milwaukee for its close proximity to distribution channels, its experienced engineering labor pool and the persuasiveness of the local government officials, who highlighted the virtues of Wisconsin,” said Mr Sotes. “We look forward to delivering high quality renewable energy components and becoming part of the Milwaukee community.”

With its global HQ in Bilbao, Spain, Ingeteam has more than 3,500 employees working in four different continents.