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Gamesa Wind, Inc.,
Gamesa Wind, Inc., and Burns Engineering, Inc. have been awarded the 2007 Grand Conceptor of Engineering Excellence Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Pennsylvania and the 2007 Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award by the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers, Philadelphia Chapter for the innovative use of an abandoned U.S. Steel plant in Bucks County, PA.
Spanish firm Gamesa Wind, Inc., the number two producer of wind turbines worldwide, has aggressively ramped up production of its wind turbines in order to enter the U.S. alternative energy market. Burns was recognized for its 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. Advanced technologies were integrated into the shell of the building to create a high-tech manufacturing plant capable of producing two 300-foot steel and carbon fiber wind towers a 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. Additional benefits that resulted from this project include:
Social Considerations — Gamesa was successful in getting their plant producing at an annual capacity of 700 megawatts of clean, non-fossil fuel electricity, or enough to power nearly 200,000 homes.
Economic Considerations — More than 300 new heavy manufacturing and skilled labor jobs, in addition to hundreds of construction jobs, stimulate the local economy.
Sustainable Design Considerations — By reusing an existing building, thousands of tons of steel, concrete and other valuable building components were reused in the new facility, providing a significant savings of natural resources and energy.
Posted on Mar 23, 12:35 PM