RTLC Industries of Falls County is poised to begin construction of a manufacturing plant in the McGregor Industrial Park that will produce about one behemoth steel tower per day.
Special products manager Tim O’Neil said the decision to get into the wind power generation business was a no-brainer. Demand for wind towers has surpassed supply, and some are imported from overseas. Also, they already produce a product similar to what the market needs.
“We’re in the large diameter water pipe business,” O’Neil said. “Basically what we build is the same thing (as a wind tower). It’s just underground. We’re not going into a different business, just a different customer.”
The tower sections would range up to 60 feet long and 14 feet in diameter. At destination (likely West Texas), four will be connected and reach more than 250 feet into the sky.
Today, RTLC employs 116 people and operates a 100,000-square-foot facility on 26 acres near Kosse, about 50 miles east of Temple. The McGregor facility would need 75 workers at first, and possibly 250 in a few years if expansion plans come to fruition.
Before the bulldozers begin site work, however, the company has two hurdles to clear: secure capital and garner city council approval.
First, O’Neil said they would soon sign a deal that would finance the 170,000-square-foot facility. Second, McGregor City Council must sign at its next meeting an agreement to install rail access, which could cost the city several million dollars.
O’Neil said McGregor has been fantastic, going to bat for the company. The city also will give the company 100 acres as a part of the final package.
“We have a large industrial park - 15 square miles,” said Leo Connor, executive director of the McGregor Economic Development Corporation. “Basically, we opened up our arms and said pick a site.”
Connor said the plant would be a boon to the McLennan County community of about 5,000 by providing jobs and economic stimulus. With the rail spur installed, Connor said other businesses would also take a closer look at the city.
The RTLC story comes at an opportune time. With oil trading at $140 a barrel on Wall Street and gas $4 a gallon at the pump, billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens this week launched a campaign emphasizing wind energy production.
Calling it the “Pickens Plan,” the controversial entrepreneur calls for private industry to fund installation of thousands of wind turbines in the wind belt, “generating enough power to provide 20 percent or more of our electricity supply.”
The area that Pickens called the wind belt runs from West Texas to North Dakota.
Pickens also plans to build the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle by 2011. It could produce 3,000 megawatts of electricity and span several counties. A company spokesman said Pickens has ordered some General Electric wind turbines but would not specify how many. Construction has not begun.
A typical wind turbine can generate enough electricity for about 500 homes per year.
