Innovation Within:

A look at the innovation inside a wind manufacturing plant

 

From the Capitol building to the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, renewable sources of energy have become a hot topic. An economy once dependent on foreign sources of fuel is being replaced by a new economy powered by wind, solar and geothermal energy. The most recent example comes from Pueblo, Colo. where Denmark-based Vestas is building the world’s largest wind tower manufacturing plant.

 

With more than 38,000 wind turbines in 63 countries, the manufacturing plant in Pueblo marks the largest single investment the company has ever made. No doubt, Vestas is ready to help the U.S. wind energy market move forward. With so much money on the line, Vestas needed to find a team of qualified contractors and engineers to trust with its investment. Olson Plumbing & Heating was selected to install the industrial gas and compressed air portions of the project.

 

Michael “Mike” Trapp, President of Olson Plumbing & Heating, wanted to install materials as innovative as the turbines soon to be manufactured at the Vestas Pueblo location. Trapp knew Viega ProPress® Stainless fittings would satisfy the innovation requirement he was looking for. The problem – the engineer hadn’t intended on using the Viega ProPress Stainless System. “The engineer was leery of using ProPress Stainless because it was new to him,” said Trapp.

 

But Trapp explained to the engineer, “We don’t use anything other than ProPress… it is a superior product… if Olson is doing the job, we are installing ProPress. It was that easy; we started placing orders for 1/2" to 4" ProPress Stainless fittings and pipe immediately.”

 

One key to business success is partnering with people and businesses that help benefit the organization. Trapp is thankful for the relationship he has in place with his wholesaler, Wholesale Specialties, Inc. “We owe a lot of credit to Wholesale Specialties. They were more than understanding during the entire construction process. They were meeting shipping loads at 5:00 am to make sure we kept the project on schedule,” said Trapp.

 

With 50 Olson Plumbing & Heating employees working on the project, the project only took a matter of months. By prefabricating all of the ProPress Stainless connections, Trapp’s team was able to pipe the 500,000-square-foot production area and 50,000-square-foot internal area of the Vestas Pueblo facility in merely five months, from January through June 2009.

 

John Hill, superintendent of Olson Plumbing & Heating, oversaw the installation of ProPress Stainless at the Vestas facility. “The prefabricated piping lines had to be trucked to the Pueblo facility from the Olson Plumbing and Heating headquarters in Colorado Springs. We had to truck the pipe on 40' racks. It was a sight to see,” said Hill. As equally impressive, was the actual installation of the prefabricated piping runs. “We worked in two teams of three and installed 21-miles of stainless pipe. Our crew had to be hoisted as they were making the connections,” said Hill.

 

The Vestas project might have been monstrous in size but Trapp’s team approached the project with the same goal in mind as they do with any project — total owner satisfaction. “We complete our projects on time and within budget,” said Trapp. “Without question, ProPress saved us a lot of time.” Project superintendent, John Hill proudly interjected, “We finished ahead of schedule by three or four weeks. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve that if it wasn’t for ProPress.”

Reported by the American Wind Energy Association (awea) in its July 2009 market report, the U.S. wind energy industry installed 1,210 megawatts of new power generating capacity in the second quarter. That figure brings the total of wind energy added this year to just over 4,000 mw — an amount larger than the 2,900 mw added in the first six months of 2008. It appears wind generation may help us through difficult economic times by creating jobs, and eliminating our dependence on foreign sources of fuel.

 

Colorado leaders are ready to see the Vestas facility open. By partnering together and using Vestas’ expertise in wind generation and Olson Plumbing and Heating’s expertise in quality craftsmanship, the Vestas wind tower manufacturing plant will open prior to end-of-year 2009.