Charleston home to $98 million grant for wind turbine research
Today is the biggest day for economic news in the Charleston area since Boeing said it would come: $98 million has been secured to establish a large-scale wind turbine drive train testing facility at the former Navy base in North Charleston.
Read more stories on this subject in our energy topic page.Here's highlights from the press release about the deal for the Clemson University Restoration Institute (emphasis added):
The award is the largest single grant ever received in the university's history and represents an enormous economic development opportunity for the region. ...
The testing facility will be housed in Building 69, a former Navy warehouse adjacent to existing rail and ship-handling infrastructure, and will be capable of full-scale highly accelerated testing of advanced drive train systems for wind turbines in the 5 megawatt to 15 megawatt range, with a 30 percent overload capacity. ...
Planning and construction of the facility will begin in the first quarter of 2010 with a targeted operational date in the third quarter of 2012. ...
The Department of Energy estimates that South Carolina could gain 10,000 to 20,000 new jobs related to the wind power industry during the next 20 years. ...
In the short term, the Restoration Institute estimates the initiative will create at least 113 temporary jobs associated with construction of the facility and 21 full-time jobs. It also will generate 568 indirect jobs for a total of 852 jobs.
To learn more check out the full release or this brief write-up at The Post and Courier.
Lately there has been an upswing in local news about wind energy.
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