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Following the Clean Energy Council Fellows
Arizona wind blade manufacturer TPI Composites Inc. plans to open a Wind Blade Innovation Center in Fall River, according to Massachusetts officials. To help get it off the ground the Massachusetts Clean Energy Council has agreed to award TPI a $250,000 grant, contingent upon the company creating and maintaining 30 jobs.
TPI plans to develop a 69,000 square foot wind blade research and development and prototype manufacturing center in Fall River in a first phase, which will bring at least 30 engineering and technical jobs to the area. The second phase of expansion will double the space and production capacity at the site, allowing TPI to make blades 70 meters or longer at the facility.
The new Fall River facility joins a sister manufacturing site in Warren, R.I., where the company was founded in 1968 as a fiberglass boat builder. Customers for TPI’s blades include Mitsubishi and GE Energy.
One of TPI’s founders, Neil Tillotson, used to own the Water Street site of the new Fall River facility. In the mid-1970s through mid-1980s, TPI used the facility as part of its fiberglass boat building business.
The office of Gov. Deval Patrick touted the new facility as another wind power win, similar to the siting of a U.S. Department of Energy-backed Wind Technology Testing Center in Charlestown, which is expected to open in February 2011. TPI says it will be a customer of the Charlestown testing facility when it opens.
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