Nov 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Rosalie Rayburn Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

Albuquerque is one of four cities vying for a factory to produce giant steel towers for the nation's soaring wind energy industry.

Fort Worth developer Renaissance Development Co. and Albuquerque Economic Development, a nonprofit that recruits new business, have been working for months to persuade an unnamed manufacturer to open a plant to produce wind turbine towers at the former rail yard workshop site near Albuquerque's Barelas district.

The U.S.-based manufacturer has plants in the United States and Canada and is looking to open a third somewhere in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas or New Mexico, said Renaissance Development Co. president Ed Casebier.

He estimates the plant could create up to 300 manufacturing jobs. Casebier has also talked with officials at the University of New Mexico and Los Alamos National Laboratory about the possibility of using some of the buildings on the property for wind energy research and development, creating additional jobs.

Casebier is working through an international consultant based in Denmark. He and Albuquerque Economic Development president Gary Tonjes hope incentives such as job training funds, tax credits and industrial revenue bonds, which are available to manufacturers, will swing the deal in Albuquerque's favor.

The nearly 30-acre site consists of 15 industrial buildings ranging from less than 1,000 square feet to 150,000 square feet. They were built in the early 20th century by the Santa Fe Railway for maintenance work on steam locomotives.

Since its demise as a working rail yard, the site has been unsuccessfully touted as a railroad museum, exhibition center and film studio.

Renaissance purchased the property last year in a partnership agreement from the nonprofit Urban Council of Albuquerque. After Calif.-based Culver Studios withdrew in January from a deal to transform the rail yard into a film studio, Renaissance decided to promote the site for its original purpose, heavy industry.

"That's what the buildings were built for in the first place," Casebier said, at a recent meeting of the city of Albuquerque's Environmental Planning Commission.

Casebier attended an October meeting to oppose a proposed zoning change that would preclude heavy industry at the site.

The rail yard's industrial buildings and a massive onsite crane once used for lifting steam locomotives, and rail access to ship large quantities of steel, make the location ideal for manufacturing wind turbine towers, he said.

Sectional steel towers that support wind-driven turbines are 200 to 300 feet tall, about 14 feet in diameter and weigh 30,000 to 100,000 pounds, depending on the thickness of the steel.

Demand for the towers has dramatically grown as utilities worldwide seek pollution-free ways to produce electricity to meet consumer needs.

"We've definitely seen the trend of more companies opening in the U.S. instead of shipping products here," said Christine Real de Azua, spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C.

New Mexico is among the top six wind energy producing states in the nation with four major wind ranches capable of producing a total of 407 megawatts of electricity. A fifth wind ranch, currently under construction, will bring that up to 497 megawatts. A megawatt is enough to supply about 800 households.

At this point, there appears to be widespread support for maintaining the zoning that would allow manufacturing at the rail yard, said Ed Boles, historic preservation planner for the city of Albuquerque.

The Environmental Planning Commission will discuss the issue again.