Port of Indiana Unloads Wind Turbine Blades

Two-day project cargo unloading for facility to power 250,000 homes

Workers at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor on June 19 started unloading 94 giant wind turbine blades for one of the world's largest wind farms under construction in northwestern Indiana. Weather permitting, the unloading will go on through Friday and Saturday.

 

The ship BBC Rhine, chartered by Baltship out of Denmark, brought the cargo for Phase I of the Meadow Lake Wind Farm, a 26,000 acre "clean energy" project in White and Benton counties. At full build-out the wind farm could have more than 600 turbines powering more than 250,000 homes, according to its owner Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy.

 

Port stevedore Federal Marine Terminals with dockworkers from the International Longshoremen's Assoc. Local 1969 and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 are handling the two-day unloading project.

 

Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems, the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world, built the blades.

 

Horizon plans to open an Indianapolis office for the development of up to four new wind farms in Indiana at a cost of more than $2 billion. Another four wind farms are planned for Ohio.

 

 

(Source: Journal of Commerce)