Nov 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jim Landers The Dallas Morning News


Executives at Dallas-based Tang Energy, a partner in a Chinese wind-power blade manufacturing plant, say they are planning a factory in the United States to capture some of the resurgent U.S. market for renewable energy.

The plant would create about 1,000 jobs, said Tang CEO E. Patrick Jenevein III, and the company has a tentative deal to supply blades for a $1.5 billion West Texas wind farm announced last month by U.S. and Chinese investors.

"Until now, we have made blades only in China, sold blades there, and imported only profits," Jenevein said by phone from Beijing. "Now we've got a start to actually deliver blades into Texas, so effectively we'll need to build a factory in the U.S."

Tang hasn't picked a site yet, he said. A team from China was in Dallas last week to begin searching locations.

"It may be Texas, it may not be Texas," Jenevein said.

U.S. Renewable Energy Group (led by Dallas investor Cappy McGarr), A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. of Shenyang, China, and Cielo Wind Power LP of Austin plan to build a wind farm capable of generating more than 600 megawatts of electricity on 36,000 acres of land.

The project calls for 240 Chinese-made turbines and 720 blades, each 157 feet long. Most of the wind farm would be financed by Chinese investors, but the developers say they'll ask the U.S. government to cover 30 percent of the $1.5 billion cost.

Some members of Congress criticized that strategy and urged the Obama administration to deny funding for a project that would create more jobs in China than in Texas. On Tuesday, McGarr said the developers would build a turbine manufacturing plant in the United States to supply other wind-power projects and employ more than 1,000 workers.

Tang's U.S. blade factory would employ about the same number of workers.

Tang co-founded HT Blade in 2001 in Baoding, China, with Huiyang Aviation Propeller Factory and China Aviation Gas-Turbine Power (Group) Corp. HT Blade produced 6,200 of the giant fiberglass blades last year and has sold to wind power customers in China, Chile, Pakistan, Russia, Cuba and Thailand.

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and City Council member Ron Natinsky visited the HT Blade factory in China on Wednesday, Jenevein said.

In May, Tang arranged $300 million in financing for U.S. wind farm projects from CATIC International Trade and Economic Development Ltd., a subsidiary of state-owned China Aviation Industry Group.

When that financing was announced, Jenevein said it would go toward development of a U.S. site using Chinese-made turbines and U.S.-made blades and towers.

Jenevein said three sites are under consideration -- all of them "north of Texas."

(c) 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services