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Wind energy boom blows work to port
Published February 1, 2009
FREEPORT — Port Freeport officials have benefited from the growth of the wind energy industry by receiving large windmill blades at their terminal to be shipped inland. But a recent boom from domestic wind energy companies also has the blades heading out of the public docks by sea.
The port has been receiving blades that are destined for other areas of the country for about one year, Port Freeport Executive Director A.J. “Pete” Reixach said. In recent months, domestic blade producers have been sending blades down Highway 288 to the port, where they are sent to South America.
The blades’ two-way passage has been profitable for the port, Reixach said. He said he could not release a firm total because of the myriad ways the port does business.
“We have a per-acre lease rate for most of the companies,” he said. “But we have a rate for wharfage — the fee we assess for every ton coming or going — we have fees on the ships,” he said. “There are multiple ways we make money.”
But the port sees another plus for blades traveling both ways. During shipping, whether by boat from customers abroad or by truck from domestic ones, blades can be damaged.
“They’ll find that the blade might be defective — either the blade’s the wrong size or it’s bent or something hit it while it was going down the highway,” Reixach said. “It’s a rare occasion, they’ll put it around and bring it down to the port and either scrap it or take it apart, whatever.”
The increased blade movement locally has created more than 200 port jobs — including longshoreman, yard workers and truck drivers .
Julie Clendenin, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association, said job growth from the wind energy industry is being seen nationwide despite the tough economy.
The industry broke records in 2008 by creating 8,358 megawatts of new generating capacity, enough to serve 2 million homes, according to an association statement Tuesday. That helped support 85,000 wind energy-related jobs in 2008, up from 50,000 the year before.
The Port of Milwaukee has reported a 500 percent increase in labor hours worked by longshoremen at the dock over the last five years as wind industry equipment has increasingly passed through the harbor. At the Port of Longview, labor hours worked by union members in unloading wind energy components grew from 1,257 in 2003 to more than 21,000 in 2006.
“It’s making U.S. jobs, whether in Texas or in Arkansas, wherever they are being manufactured,” Reixach said. “It’s also producing revenue for the company, but it’s producing jobs at the port and producing revenue at the port.”
Nathaniel Lukefahr covers Freeport for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 237-0151.
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