By Kari Williamson
The 73,000 ft2 warehouse, with 7 acres of outside storage, will provide procurement, kitting, storage, refurbishment and distribution for the tooling needed to erect and install wind turbines throughout the Americas region.
The wind power distribution centre will also provide storage, repair and distribution for all new unit transport framing and hardware used to move towers, nacelles and blades throughout the region.
"With more and more wind projects coming on line in the US, we see this new facility in Wichita as a testament to our continued commitment to providing the highest level of service to our customers and to the overall maturation of the US wind industry," says Mark Albenze, CEO of Siemens Energy's Wind Power Americas business.
"Much like Siemens' recently announced new wind service facility in Woodward, Oklahoma, the geographic location of the new Wichita distribution centre will allow us to address our customers' installation and distribution needs in a cost-effective and timely manner."
The Wichita facility will provide support and distribution services for wind projects throughout the US, and locally in Kansas, where Siemens is providing Duke Energy with 73 SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines for its 168 MW Ironwood wind project in Spearville, scheduled to be commissioned late next summer.
Siemens is also supplying 57 SWT-2.3-108 wind turbines for Duke Energy's Cimarron II wind project in Gray County, Kansas, scheduled for commissioning in May 2012.