Siemens to set up wind turbine blade factory in Ontario

(ADPnews) - Dec 3, 2010 - German electronics group Siemens AG (ETR:SIE) said on Thursday it would build a CAD-20-million (USD 19.9m/EUR 15m) wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Tillsonburg, Ontario, as it seeks to better serve the North American market.

The company will renovate an existing facility, creating as much as 300 permanent working positions. It will commence operations in October 2011 and will make blades for Siemens's 2.3-MW turbines.

At present, Siemens is working on eight projects in Ontario and Manitoba, with a capacity of 950 MW. All of them will use blades produced in the new facility. The plant will also supply blades for South Korea’s Samsung Corp and US clean power startup Pattern Energy Group LP to help them meet contractual requirements to install 600 MW of green energy in Ontario.

Siemens said it may expand the Tillsonburg facility's capacity in future, as it is positive of the growth of Canada's wind power sector. Wind installations in the country are seen to exceed 15,000 MW in 2020, bringing 11% of the national electricity mix. Ontario alone is presenting great opportunities for wind energy investment with it Green Energy Act and the related feed-in-tariff programme. The province's current installed wind power capacity stands at 1,298 MW, out of 3,499 MW throughout Canada.

(CAD 1 = USD 0.996/EUR 0.755)

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