Monroe, Mich.-based Ventower Industries will begin hiring by year's end for a Port of Monroe factory that will make towers for industrial-sized wind generators. The facility will house approximately 150 employees by early 2012, The Blade of Toledo, Ohio reports.
The paper reports the privately owned start-up company will begin with about 50 employees early next year after opening its $22 million factory and gradually increasing production and employment.
Ventower recently received a $2.3 million grant and $1.2 million loan in clean-energy stimulus funding as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The company uses a mixture of private investment, government incentives and loans.
Prior to being awarded federal stimulus money last month, Ventower received a federal, state and local incentive package totaling about $16.5 million. The package includes a $2 million Environmental Protection Agency loan for building its factory on a former industrial site, and a $4 million Small Business Administration loan.
Ventower, which is in contract discussions with a number of turbine makers, plans on building 250 towers annually.
SOURCE: Toledo Blade
