Chinese Breeze: A-Power Plans Big Wind-Turbine Plant in U.S.

Call it the Chuck Schumer effect.

Less than two weeks after New York’s senior senator railed against the Chinese wind farm planned for Texas, since it would mean mostly Chinese jobs, the companies behind the project announced their plans to build a huge wind-turbine factory in the U.S.

A-Power, the Chinese wind-turbine maker, and local partners U.S. Renewable Energy Group said they would build a massive wind-turbine plant in the U.S. that could produce 1,100 megawatts of wind turbines a year and employ more than 1,000 U.S. workers. The factory would use U.S.-made wind-turbine components, the company said.

“The decision to construct this wind energy facility in the United States is the direct result of America’s commitment to renewable energy and the strength and skill of the American workforce,” said Cappy McGarr, US-REG Managing Partner, in a press release.

It won’t matter for the Texas wind farm, which is meant to break ground next spring. But the planned factory would be huge—the same size as A-Power’s Chinese plant, which the company says is the biggest wind factory in China. The projected output of the factory would be somewhere between 15% and 20% of the recent annual installations of wind power in the U.S.

How, exactly, will it place all those turbines? Competition is fierce in the U.S., with global heavyweights General Electric, Vestas, Gamesa, and Siemens all fighting for market share in the world’s biggest wind-power market. All have a much longer track record than A-Power, which got into the wind business last year and uses German technology.

Can the plant compete on cost? Hard to see how. The whole point is to use U.S. labor, which costs more than Chinese labor. Ditto with U.S. wind-turbine components. There’s no cheap yuan to help sell the U.S.-made turbines, either. And tax credits for manufacturing facilities help all renewable-energy producers equally.

Maybe the real play is for Latin America. Despite all the talk about serving the U.S. market, the companies say the new plant will provide turbines “to renewable energy projects throughout North and South America.” Unlike wind markets in the U.S. and Europe, Latin America doesn’t have any home-grown wind-turbine makers gobbling up market share.

And even though the continent has been a wind-power laggard, governments from Mexico to Brazil are starting to warm up to the idea.