615MW Texas wind farm to use US steel after union deal

August 9, 2010

A deal between the United Steelworkers (USW) and two Chinese wind companies means 50,000 tons of steel for a 615MW wind farm in Texas will come from US steel mills.

The agreement with A-Power Energy Generation and Shenyang Power Group was announced on Friday, and looks set to support “hundreds” of American jobs.

USW, America’s largest industrial union, got involved in the wind project following concerns expressed back in March that $450 million in federal stimulus money was going to foreign companies to supply the West Texas wind farm.

The union said it had worked with clean energy investment firm US Renewable Energy Group to set up its first ever agreement with a company in China.

The move would ensure that wind farm components would be made by union workers in America instead of being imported from overseas, it said.

Leo W. Gerard, USW International President, said: “We will work with A-Power and SPG to create long-term, good-paying, green American jobs. The USW is committed to building a strong domestic supply chain that will be key to the future of America’s global renewable energy leadership.”

“High standards”

Commenting on his meeting with USA, Shenyang Power Group Chairman and CEO Jinxiang Lu said: ”We quickly discovered that our company’s high standards at every level of the clean energy technology supply chain were the same as those of the USW.”

Referring to his company’s plan to set up manufacturing facilities in the US (see this BrighterEnergy.org story), A-Power COO John S Lin said of the agreement with USW: “Our cooperation with USW will benefit the development of our projects, including the planning of a wind turbine assembly plant in Nevada and the ongoing development of the supply chain for the expected delivery of wind turbines to the 615MW wind farm under development in Texas.”

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who has raised questions about the awarding of federal stimulus funding to foreign renewable energy companies supplying US projects with components made abroad, said the USW deal was an “important step:.

“We can’t replace our dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on Chinese-made wind turbines,” he said. “We must continue to develop the manufacturing supply chain to meet our demand for clean energy.”?