Ingeteam sets sights on U.S. wind market

Aitor Sotes, chief executive of Ingeteam Inc's U.S. unit, said the company wants to expand its footprint in the country and is ramping up production operations in anticipation of growth in the sector.

The U.S. wind industry has grown nearly 40 percent on average each of the past five years, but even with the steady expansion, wind power generation accounts for less than 2 percent of the country's total, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Ingeteam, which has had U.S. offices providing services since 2008, is building its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The facility is expected to cost $18 million and be operational by March of next year, Sotes said.

The company will have to go up against established players like General Electric and Denmark's Vestas, the two top U.S. turbine suppliers. Several Chinese companies are also working to expand their reach.

"The U.S. market is a strategic market for us. Obviously, it's one of the biggest markets currently, and potentially, for wind and solar," Sotes told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We want to be in the $100 million range," he said of sales. The company currently generates some $5 million per year from its U.S. sales, in services alone.

Ingeteam's Wisconsin plant will manufacture generators for wind turbines, converters for the wind industry and inverters for its solar photovoltaics division, Sotes said.

The plant is expected to supply equipment capable of producing 7,500 megawatts of electricity per year, and will feed the majority of its product into the U.S. market.

One megawatt is enough power for some 800 U.S. homes.

The U.S. wind industry is off to a slow start in 2010, having installed just 539 MW during the first quarter, the lowest first-quarter figure since 2007, according to the association.

Last year, the industry installed more than 10 gigawatts.

But Sotes said he saw the slowdown as temporary, in line with larger market concerns. He said legislative stability on the part of the U.S. government could help to stimulate growth.

Ingeteam currently claims around 12 percent of the world market for wind power components, and hopes to have 20 percent by 2015, he added. Sotes declined to say what slice of the U.S. market the company hopes to capture.

"We still need the financial markets to stabilize, at least to gain confidence, so that there is financing out there to fund wind projects," he said.