Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas, Inc. (MPSA) has broken ground on a $100 million wind turbine nacelle manufacturing plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas, crediting a coalition of elected officials and the region's business community for creating the environment that allowed them to site the facility in America's heartland.
The nacelle, which is located at the top of the wind turbine tower and functions to convert wind energy to electric power, consists of the wind turbine rotor axis, generator, multiplying gearbox, control system and electrical equipment.
The Arkansas plant will be MPSA's first nacelle manufacturing plant outside of Japan. The 200,000 square foot facility is expected to create approximately 330 jobs and be operational by the fall of 2011.
"Our company conducted a national survey for the purpose of determining where and why we would locate a fabrication plant for the next generation of wind turbine nacelles,” said James Williams, Mitsubishi's vice president of manufacturing. “We looked at geography, infrastructure and transportation logistics. We looked at the need for partners at all levels of government. But most important, we looked at work ethic. We looked for a part of the country where manufacturing isn't some lost art. Where elected officials recognize the value of job creation and new investment, and where they are enthusiastic about working closely with business to create progress."
Ichiro Fukue, senior executive vice president, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, (MHI) stated, "We are enormously excited about the prospect of this facility becoming not only a center of wind turbine manufacturing in the United States but an economic generator for Arkansas that will mean new jobs and new investment. We could not have reached this day however without a supportive Arkansas coalition of public officials, their staff and the local business community."
MPSA provides a wide variety of products and services for the electric power generation industry including gas, steam, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric turbines, boilers, selective catalytic reduction systems and solar energy. MPSA was established in 2001 and is headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida with key operations in Orlando, Newport Beach, California, Houston, Texas and Savannah, Georgia.
