Northeastern Wisconsin's Welcome to Wind Energy Industries

Look to the New North (the eighteen counties of northeast Wisconsin) to provide the manufacturing elements necessary for the growing wind energy industry.  No other region in the Midwest offers the unique combination of advantages available here, including superior supplier potential built upon a one hundred year old manufacturing tradition, an expanding economy, access to some of the nation's best wind resources, strong existing markets and excellent workforce and transportation assets. 

Roughly 24% of jobs within the New North are manufacturing jobs, the second highest concentration in the United States.  With an economy historically concentrated on paper products – represented by such firms as Proctor & Gamble, Georgia-Pacific, Kimberly-Clark, Great Northern, NewPage, and SCA – and complemented by other process or engineered product development such as Oshkosh Truck, the Manitowoc Company, and ThyssenKrupp, this is a region that produces highly sophisticated, design-built, engineered products.

The region's economy remains strong as it changes from a paper-dominated economy to a much more diverse economy.  The paper industry served to concentrate a strong engineering bias in terms of workforce demand, supplier/vendor capacities that are also biased to engineered solutions, and an infrastructure that is focused on strong logistic capacities.  More than 179,000 jobs have been created in Wisconsin since January 2003, including nearly 75,000 high-paying professional service jobs and thousands of manufacturing jobs.  According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, other heavy manufacturing states have been losing manufacturing jobs between January 2003 and June 2006.

New North Labor Availability and Existing Competencies

• Labor market of roughly 750,000 workers.
• Market dominated by a long standing tradition of manufacturing and a strong work ethic.  
• 24% of total existing positions are manufacturing positions with existing competencies in machining, composites fabrication, heavy welding, component assembly, etc.
• Highly skilled design/build skill sets within the labor market are reflected in industries that convert wood-based fibers, metal, and agriculture products for value-added production and distribution to domestic and world markets. 

Wind Energy Supplier Availability

Over one hundred resident regional industries (vendor-suppliers) possess the production capacity to meet the needs of all component products required of wind energy industries.  On a statewide basis, the number of vendor-suppliers increases to 500+.  Of particular note are the gear box, casting and rotor blade specialty manufacturers already available in the New North:  equipment typically known to constrain wind turbine development.

For more information on Wind Industries in the New North, read the complete report. ( 1.8 MB)