Maybe manufacturing press releases travel the web faster than manufacturing process updates and I would honestly like to cover a wide variety of manufacturing topics in this blog. However, another European company wants to build wind turbines in America’s heartland, this one, according to the Helena Independant Record, will be in Montana.
“We could see we have the right area, we have the right political support, the right financial support and we have the windy area where the wind farms and projects are close to the manufacturing line,”
That is a quote from the CEO of the German company, Fuhrlander AG, which for the past 20 years has manufactured wind turbines. They plan on spending 25 million dollars on constructing a new facility in Butte, Montana which will create at least 100 green collar jobs and if, in the future, they move on to blade production, feel free to add 600 to that figure.
Governor Schweitzer (any German connection?) should be applauded for showing that Butte had an infrastructure to handle this type of progression. He explained that Fuhrlander was
“Very comfortable employing organized labor, and Butte, once called the “Gibraltar of unionism,” has a pool of available union workers.”
This is a good sign because it shows that at least this European company thinks it can benefit from American capitalism, politics, unions, free market, and, well, wind. Another important note is that the factory will be located close to Montana Tech and the College of Technology in Butte. This nearby training ground will prepare new workers in this growing field and hopefully the state of Montana will be able to retain the workers and continue growing their green collar economy.
Green Collar Manufacturing 
