Consultants Forum Advertise
Subscribe
Close

  • Free for qualified executives and consultants to industry

  • Receive quarterly issues of Area Development Magazine and special market report and directory issues

Subscribe Now
Renew

Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Global Wind Turbine Firm LM Wind Power Establishes First U.S. R&D Center

06/15/2011
The world's leading supplier to the wind turbine industry--LM Wind Power (LMWP)--will open its first U.S-based global R&D office in Grand Forks, ND, later this year at the University of North Dakota's Research Enterprise and Commercialization (REAC) park.

This project is an expansion of the firm's existing blade production plant already operating in Grand Forks. Plans call for up to 15 employees to be hired on its payroll in 2011. No state or local incentives have been offered to the company.

This new American R&D facility extends the company's global R&D footprint to seven locations: three facilities in Denmark, an office in the Netherlands, an R&D center in India, an office opening this summer in China, and now Grand Forks.

The Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation (EDC) has been working with the company for over five years to establish connections and collaborations with Grand Forks and the University of North Dakota (UND).

UND's research in the field of engineering is a "perfect fit" with LMWP, said Dr. Phyllis Johnson, UND Vice President for Research and Economic Development. The addition of the R&D division "will take our collaboration to a new level, further building our capabilities in material science."

Kevan Rusk, LM Wind Power's Director of Core Engineering in Denmark, said LMWP has "several development projects underway at this time.and the move to this facility in Grand Forks will allow us to accelerate these programs."

Exclusive Research