Foreign "salties" unload wind turbine parts in Muskegon
Caroline MacGregor October 5, 2012 | WGVU
By early
November, seven foreign ships or "salties" as they are commonly referred to, will have pulled into the Mart Dock in Muskegon to
unload parts onto oversized trucks headed for a wind turbine farm in Ithaca.
The sight of giant tower blades and wind tower sections being unloaded onto
equally enormous trailers has spellbound area residents invited to view the extensive
operation. It’s part of a joint venture
between the Beebe Wind Farm and Chicago-based wind turbine manufacturer, Nordex.
“Nordex is also the manufacturer of the wind turbine generator and blades which are coming in from Nordex's plant in Germany and they are bringing wind tower sections in from Korea.”
That was
Scott Musselman, Chief Financial Officer for Sand Products Corporation, parent company of the Mart
Dock. He says the operation started on August 22nd and the Amselborg, the 4th vessel
in the convoy of ships carrying wind turbine parts, departed from Muskegon
this morning. The next foreign ship scheduled to arrive is the 462 foot Marlene
Green which is currently held up off the coast of Wisconsin due to bad weather.
“It was actually scheduled to arrive last night. It is sitting on the west side of Michigan off Milwaukee sheltered from the west wind so as soon as it sees a break from the weather it will come in and the latest information we are getting is that it is likely to arrive sometime tomorrow.”
The parts
were sourced in Germany and Korea, in part, due to a delay by Congress to reauthorize
the production tax credit that has driven a lot of the investment into wind
farms. Musselman says while costs are
coming down thanks to new technology and improvements in manufacturing,
production has been cut and there have been hundreds of layoffs domestically
due to the delay which businesses say is making it difficult to commit to long term planning.
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