Blade Dynamics, which manufactures high tech wind turbines, produced its first New Orleans-made blade at the Michoud manufacturing facility in eastern New Orleans on Thursday.
Blade Dynamics is a clean tech startup based in England that designs and manufactures advanced blades, turbine rotors, and surface coatings for high power wind turbines. Last year the company announced plans to open its U.S. manufacturing facility in New Orleans.
In announcing plans in August, 2010, to create 600 new jobs in New Orleans by 2015 at an average annual salary of $48,000, plus benefits, and to make a capital investment of about $13 million, it secured an economic development package from the state that could top $30 million. The company’s co-founder and sales director Theo Botha said about 95 percent of the jobs will be filled by local people. Blade is still HIRING, and you can find out more about those jobs here.
Blade has secured more than $8 million in venture capital from Mass.-based American Superconductor Corp. and the Dow Chemical Co.
The high profile project is already bringing more attention to New Orleans as a cleantech hub. This past March, the British Ambassador to the United States made a visit to New Orleans and made it known that he sees lots of opportunities for cleantech investment in New Orleans from the Brits over the next few years. The feds and private investors also believe Louisiana has what it takes.