Energy Composites Corporation Signs Agreement to Develop WindFiber™ Blade Production Facility
06 November 2009 - 3:38AM
Business Wire
Energy Composites Corporation (OTCBB:ENCC) announced that the
Company has reached agreement with the City of Wisconsin Rapids, WI
to develop two parcels totaling 93 acres into the world’s most
advanced wind blade facility. The announcement represents the next
major milestone in the accelerating deployment of ECC’s WindFiber™
strategy, following ECC’s recent appointment of Adrian Williams to
head its WindFiber™ division.
Under the developers agreement between the City of Wisconsin
Rapids and ECC, the City has agreed to sell a 39 acre parcel and a
54 acre parcel in the Rapids East Commerce Center to ECC for
$500/acre for the development of a major utility-scale wind blade
production facility and associated logistics center. The agreement
provides for at least $7.5 million in development incentives from
the City, including site improvements, job creation cash credits,
and additional cash payments. The minimum incentive threshold was
calculated based on ECC’s original plans for a facility that would
produce enough blades to equip wind energy systems producing 750
megawatts of power per year. Since ECC’s final design will provide
blades for more than 1,200 megawatts of power annually -- a 60%
increase in output -- the Company anticipates that the final level
of developers incentives from the City will grow significantly as
the size of the total tax increment grows. Closing on the land
acquisition will occur before the end of December.
Sam Fairchild, ECC’s CEO, stated that, “Our ongoing partnership
with the City of Wisconsin Rapids, and this developers agreement,
is a critical footing in our efforts to launch the world’s most
advanced wind blade facility. I can’t say enough about the enormous
contribution by Mayor Mary Jo Carson and her excellent staff in
making this a reality. Mayor Carson gets it, and her hard work will
generate economic benefit for the people of Wisconsin Rapids for
many years to come. We also want to thank the Common Council for
its faith in our combined vision and its recognition of our
unwavering commitment to Wisconsin Rapids.”
Jamie Mancl, ECC’s founder and President, noted, that “The
process of working with the City and other parties produced a final
plan that is dramatically better than the one with which we
started. Mayor Carson and her staff were very patient with us as we
shifted our plans in real time to capture newly-emerging trends in
the market. For example, our final requirements for land and
investment by the City reflects newly-emerging market trends in
wind -- a greater emphasis on development of offshore wind farms,
and the longer wind blades required by those farms; a stronger need
for more flexible logistics strategies, including the use of unit
trains for shipping finished blades for installation; heightened
sensitivity to the environmental impact of blade production; and a
substantially higher degree of automation required for future blade
production. As we worked through these and other refinements, our
vision for our WindFiber™ Campus, and the more than 600 high-paid,
permanent jobs it will create, took final shape.”
Adrian Williams, WindFiber’s™ director and the central architect
of the Windfiber™ strategy, commented that “This agreement sets all
of the wheels into motion. ECC’s blade plant will be the first
production facility in North America that is designed to produce
blades up to 65 meters in length, ideally positioning us to deliver
blade solutions for the coming generation of large-diameter onshore
and offshore wind energy turbines. These larger machines, already
in use throughout Europe, maximize energy capture and minimize the
cost of energy produced. The WindFiber™ plant will enjoy maximum
production design flexibility in order to meet the blade
requirements of our customers. We will also be able to employ
innovative supply chain strategies that will give us a strong
competitive edge as well as unique product and manufacturing
technologies that will deliver significant improvements in blade
reliability, turbine availability and manufacturing efficiency. As
we begin to break ground, we will roll out the details on these
advantages to the marketplace, as well as the other key elements of
our WindFiber™ strategy.”
Mary Jo Carson, the Mayor of the City of Wisconsin Rapids,
expressed her strong commitment to the success of WindFiber™,
saying, “The City of Wisconsin Rapids has just taken a giant step
into the world of “green” jobs. Energy Composites Corporation will
be creating more than 600 non-exportable jobs in Wisconsin Rapids
in the very near future. This means that the blades that ECC’s
employees will be making for the wind energy sector are too large
to be made and shipped to the United States from places like China.
Our City is proud to be part of this project and we look forward to
production beginning towards the end of 2010.” Carson added that
“The ECC projects is yet another example of the power of a
public/private partnership, creating a long-term relationship that
will benefit the City, the company, and the people of Wisconsin
Rapids.”
Fairchild added, “This is an important milestone. There are, of
course several more ahead. With the developer agreement signed, ECC
can now begin specific discussions with our targeted clients on
schedules, costs, manufacturing requirements and the like. We can
now finalize financing. We can nail down the final architectural
requirements and place out bid packages. And we can begin to focus
on the remaining parts of our WindFiber™ campus, including our
research and development component. We are very pleased with our
progress, and look forward to delivering substantial value to our
shareholders, our clients, our employee-associates and our
community.”
About Energy Composites Corporation
ECC operates a world-class, automated 73,000 sq. ft.
climate-controlled manufacturing facility in Wisconsin Rapids, WI,
employing advanced composite materials to design, engineer and
manufacture complex composite structures, vessels and processing
systems for a range of clean-tech applications that include: wind
energy system components, flue gas desulfurization for power
plants, infrastructure for bio-fuel storage and processing,
infrastructure for managing waste water and drinking water,
advanced municipal utilities infrastructure, and caustic material
storage and handling systems for the petrochemical, mining and the
pulp and paper industries. ECC also provides 24/7 field service
crews nationwide for wind energy system composites maintenance,
repair and overhaul; industrial retrofit, shutdown and maintenance;
system installation; and repair and inspection services. For
additional information, visit our website at
www.energycompositescorp.com or contact Sam Fairchild at
1-800-787-5439.
Certain statements found in this press release may constitute
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on
current expectations and include any statement that does not
directly relate to a current or historical fact. Such statements
are generally identifiable by the terminology used, such as
“anticipate,” “believe,” “intend,” ”expect,” “plan,” or other
similar words. Our forward-looking statements in this release
generally relate to our expectations and beliefs with respect to
our growth and expansion activities and plans. Although it is not
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results to differ from our forward-looking statements, such factors
include, among others, the following: (i) unforeseen delays, costs
or liabilities associated with our growth and expansion plans; (ii)
fluctuations in general economic conditions; and (iii) those risks
described from time to time in our reports to the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Investors should not consider any list of such
factors to be an exhaustive statement of all of the risks,
uncertainties or potentially inaccurate assumptions that could
cause our current expectations or beliefs to change. Shareholders
and other readers should not place undue reliance on
“forward-looking statements” as such statements speak only as of
the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to update
publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, other than as
required by law.
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