Acciona's First Wind Turbine Plant in the U.S. Under Way

It will produce 250 AW-1500 [1.5 MW] wind turbines in 2008 using in-house technology. It is the company's fourth wind-turbine assembly plant, with another two in Spain and a third in China.

The decision to build a facility in Iowa, which holds third place in wind power capacity in the U.S. after Texas and California, is due to its excellent logistical location in relation to a large number of wind power projects of the Acciona Group in the U.S., and also to factors such as the existence of an industrial supplier base nearby, the support of the state and the city of West Branch for the investment, and the availability of a skilled workforce and technical training centers.

Acciona's West Branch plant will supply wind turbines for wind farms located throughout North America and will provide the company, when it is operating at full capacity, with worldwide production capacity of 1,740 wind turbines for a total of 2,610 MW per year.

The West Branch facility will utilize Acciona's proprietary technology to produce its AW-1500 models, with rotor diameters of 77 and 82 meters for tower heights of 80 meters. The plant will also have the capacity to manufacture the company's future 3-megawatt (MW) AW-3000 model turbine.