Winds of change favor Tower Tech

Manitowoc manufacturer ships wind tower sections to projects in U.S. and Canada

By: Charlie Mathews, Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — President Barack Obama is a strong supporter of renewable energy, including wind and solar. His $3.6 trillion budget proposal includes a $150 billion investment in renewable energy over 10 years.

That presidential seal of approval is helping spur growth of companies nationwide, including Tower Tech Systems on the South 16th Street peninsula by the Manitowoc River.

It produces wind towers nearly 300 feet tall and weighing nearly 200 tons.

"There certainly is a big push federally and in the state for renewables, including wind," said Paul Smith, vice president and chief operating officer of the subsidiary of Broadwind Energy, with headquarters in Naperville, Ill. Smith said production tax credits are helping stimulate the development of wind farms across the U.S.

With new facilities in Abilene, Texas, and Sioux Falls, S.D., Broadwind Energy has three manufacturing plants.
Smith said part of its strategic model is putting plants where their customers are, as one of the biggest expenses of tower projects is transporting the towers from the plant to the windy location expected to help turn the 100-foot blades.

James Dillon is one of Tower Tech's 210 employees in its local 190,000-square-foot plant who gives Tower Tech a competitive edge in the growing industry.

"From the very first time I saw somebody welding, I knew that's what I wanted to do the rest of my life," said Dillon, 41. "There is a difference between someone who can weld and someone who is a true welder."

Dillon said some individuals just have a knack for not only creating a weld between two pieces of metal that looks good but also creating an end product that functions as specified by the customer.

Last week, Dillon was welding "cans" together for the four sections of each wind tower, ranging in length from about 40 to 80 feet, which are bolted together at the wind farm site.

Each complete monopole consists of 25 to 30 cans that are between 8 and 15 feet in diameter, from top to base.

But, first, steel plate ranging in thickness from about 1¼ to 3 inches is trucked to Manitowoc for bending and welding in the plant, which over the decades has produced submarines and cranes.

Smith said Tower Tech's experience and expertise in heavy weldments comes from generations of people on the Manitowoc peninsula producing massive steel equipment.

Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., which eventually became today's The Manitowoc Company, built its first steel-hulled vessel in 1905. During World War II, the company manufactured 28 submarines for the U.S. Navy in the same location Tower Tech occupies.

"Our people have a work ethic combined with basic fabrication and welding knowledge that enable us to build some of the heaviest towers in the industry better than anybody," Smith said.

Mike Skahan, human resources director, said Tower Tech is not hiring, but is running three shifts. He said he is impressed by "the pure scale and size" of the towers, that are nearly as long as a football field when assembled.

He has worked in the automotive, paper and metal fabrication industries. "The future of wind energy is very bright and there is lots of upside potential for the industry to expand and provide new jobs for the United States," Skahan said.

He said Lakeshore Technical College has been a strong educational partner. LTC instructors have come on-site to provide supervisory and leadership training to Tower Tech personnel.

In addition, welders working at Tower Tech's Texas plant were trained at LTC for several weeks.

The first four-section tower built by Tower Tech was erected in March 2005 in Wyoming by Clipper Wind Power. In the subsequent years, Tower Tech has supplied Vestas and Gamesa Wind US.

Each wind tower section undergoes extensive inspections and is expected to be perfect before leaving the Manitowoc yard on the back of a flat-bed trailer heading to a wind farm in the U.S. or Canada.

Smith and Jerry Keehan, plant manager, and Jim Meyer, production manager, said attention to detail is paramount.

"Every operation has quality standards that have to be maintained," Keehan said. "From the angle of the bevel, to the radius of the rolled can, the fit-up between cans, to the thickness of the paint layers … every operation has standards that need to be achieved."

Meyer is a welder by trade and has been with Tower Tech since its founding in 2003 by Manitowoc businessmen Ray Brickner, Dan Wergin, Chris Allie and Terry Fox.

Meyer had been with Brickner's RBA Inc., which has built heavy digging and shredding equipment for the mining and construction industries.

Meyer said he enjoys metal fabrication. "You can hear and see … just know … what a good weld is," he said.
He had high praise for the production workers in Manitowoc and their desire to be part of a team producing a world-class product.

Allie said Tuesday Tower Tech had millions of dollars in expenses during its early years before it was able to produce its first wind tower. "But we knew it was a darn good idea," Allie said. He said he and his partners had visited Europe several times, "where they are about 15 years ahead of us" in wind-powered energy technology.

The four partners took the company public, selling shares in an attempt to raise capital. In 2007, a hedge fund, Tontine Capital Partners, invested some $90 million in the company in return for a controlling interest.

Allie said Tontine stabilized the company's finances, "coming along at the right time" to cover substantial start-up losses. Initially, Allie was chairman of the board with the other three local businessmen serving as directors.
Only Fox remains on Broadwind's board of directors.

Allie said Tontine helped lead the expansion and acquisition of other wind-related enterprises with a new entity, Broadwind Energy, as the parent company. "Broadwind offers one-stop shopping if you want to invest in the wind-tower business," he said. Shares are traded on the NASDAQ.

Broadwind's companies include Badger Transport, a specialty heavy hauler; Brad Foote Gear Works, a gearing systems manufacturer; RBA; and Tower Tech. Allie said the corporate office was relocated last year to Naperville, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, as a more convenient location for executives to fly to the company's various facilities in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Texas.

Allie said he and his partners have recouped their initial investment.

"Tower Tech has been a great thing for all four of us," he said.

None of the four original founders has more than 5 percent of the shares, Allie said.

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