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Innovative Wind Turbine Manufacturing Plant Wins Excellence Awards
PHILADELPHIA, PA, February 2007 – Gamesa Wind, Inc. and Burns Engineering, Inc. have been awarded the American Council of Engineering Companies of Pennsylvania 2007 Grand Conceptor of Engineering Excellence Award and the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers, Philadelphia Chapter’s 2007 Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award for innovative use of an abandoned U.S. Steel plant in Bucks County, PA. Spanish firm Gamesa Wind, the number two producer of wind turbines worldwide, has aggressively ramped up production of its wind turbines here in order to enter the U.S. alternative energy market. The award recognizes the design and construction innovations that allowed Gamesa to rapidly begin meeting domestic demand for wind turbines, create manufacturing jobs for the area, ensure clean non-fossil fuel sources for the U.S. and reuse an environmentally blighted area.
Burns helped Gamesa reuse the Brownfield site through innovative methods of renovating and reactivating a 250,000 square foot steel plant into a state-of-the art wind turbine manufacturing facility. The plant is now capable of producing two, 300-foot tall steel and carbon fiber wind towers every day. Working closely with state and local economic development and regulatory agencies, the site was ready for initial production within six months. Renovating an existing building in a timely manner was critical to meeting the market window for Gamesa products. Recycling a Brownfield also saved thousands of tons of waste from landfills in comparison to constructing a new building.
The project contributes many social, economic and environmental benefits. The Gamesa plant is now manufacturing two wind turbines per day. One year’s production output from the plant has the potential energy generating capacity of 700 megawatts of clean, non-fossil fuel electricity, which is enough to power nearly 200,000 homes for a year. More than 300 new skilled labor manufacturing jobs, in addition to hundreds of construction jobs, stimulate the local economy. By reusing an existing building, thousands of tons of valuable building components were reused, providing a significant savings of natural resources and energy that would be used to make them into building materials. As a Brownfield reclamation, the project has been recognized as an environmental success story.
ABOUT GAMESA – Gamesa is one of the biggest manufacturers and suppliers of technologically advanced products, installations and services in the renewable energy sector. Gamesa generates electric energy of renewable origin, essentially based on the promotion and running of wind farms, the manufacture of wind turbines and the providing of advanced services to the renewable energy sector.
Posted on Feb 27, 12:03 PM