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Clinton railcar plant now making parts for wind turbines

Posted August 09, 2007 11:00 pm

Tim Landis

Sometime in the next couple of weeks, sections of 280-foot towers for wind turbines will begin to roll out of a manufacturing plant north of Clinton that for more than a decade produced railroad cars.

Already, 100 people have gone to work and another 50 jobs are expected as the plant 45 miles northeast of Springfield gears up.

It also is the latest sign of an emerging manufacturing business in a wind-generation industry that is on track to add a record 3,000 megawatts of capacity this year. A megawatt of wind power is enough to supply 250 to 300 homes.

"It is going to be a record year, but it would be a better year if there weren't the supply concerns, said Kathy Belyeu of the American Wind Energy Association.

An association survey released this week also showed Illinois has become one of the busiest states in the country for wind-turbine construction with 198 megawatts of capacity going online from April to June.

Only Texas exceeded Illinois by adding 603 megawatts and continues to lead the nation as the state with the most wind-generation capacity, followed by California, Iowa, Minnesota and Washington.

But for this Dewitt County community of 7,500, which also is home to a Commonwealth Edison nuclear plant, the Trinity Structural Towers Inc. facility is about a comeback of jobs lost eight years ago when the parent company, Trinity Industries Inc., moved the railcar manufacturing and maintenance facility to Mexico.

Trinity, based in Fort Worth, Texas, also is one of the nation's largest suppliers of wind-generation equipment.

"They closed it when the train division slowed down, and suddenly the wind business has kicked up," said Mayor Ed Wollet, who took office in May.

"Certainly it means jobs. We were with the owners the other day, and they are cranking up," said Wollet, who added that employment of 150 would roughly replace the number of jobs lost when the railcar plant shut down.

Dewitt County unemployment of 5.1 percent in June compared to 4.7 percent nationally and 5.4 percent for the state.

The county and local township agreed to $1 million in road improvements to the site just outside the Clinton city limits and to abatement of property taxes on site improvements for five years. The project also qualified for state economic development incentives.

"They had to retool the plant, and it took them a while to go from railcars to wind towers," said Rodger Sprague, a member of the county economic development committee. He added that job fairs drew hundreds of applicants.

"The railcar industry really goes in cycles. … The location was just perfect for them," said Sprague. He estimated the railcar plant operated for about 16 years.

As a result of the domestic supply crunch for wind turbines, the Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative at Auburn had to purchase equipment from a European manufacturer for a project on Interstate 55 at Farmersville, just south of Springfield.

Original plans were to begin work this year, but spokesman Dana Smith said it appears the project won't begun until the spring or summer of 2008.

"We have the order in. They are talking about next spring to ship to us," said Smith. "Once the equipment comes in, it should take only about 30 days."

The latest AWEA survey listed Clinton among five wind-generation manufacturing plants opened nationwide this year. Another of the projects is on the site of a former Bethlehem Steel plant on Lake Erie, near Lackawanna, N.Y., and is the first in the nation to open in an industrial "brownfield."

Association executive director Randall Swisher said in the report a number of new plants are on old manufacturing sites.

"We're seeing many new wind farms come on line, and very exciting new investment in wind-turbine manufacturing, but it's only the tip of the iceberg compared to what needs to happen to meet increasing demand for wind power," he said.

The association is lobbying Congress for a long-term extension of federal wind-energy tax credits scheduled to expire at the end of 2008.

Tim Landis can be reached at (217) 788-1536 or tim.landis@sj-r.com.

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