It appears the closure of the Siemens wind turbine blade plant in Tillsonburg will not have any bearing on CS Wind’s operation in Windsor.
The company's local project manager, Paolo Piunno, says while the province’s Feed-In Tariff program is coming to a close, they are focusing on finding new markets for the wind turbine towers produced at the Anchor Drive location.
Piunno tells CTV Windsor those markets include Saskatchewan and Alberta as well as several states in the U.S.
Ontario’s FIT program guaranteed pricing for renewable energy production, offering stable prices under long-term contracts.
Siemens Wind Power Ltd. announced Tuesday the factory that employed 340 workers is not large enough to build the sorts of bigger turbine blades the company needs to stay competitive in an increasingly challenging market.
Although the factory won't be fully closed until early 2018, the majority of staff will feel the effects right away
Siemens says 206 staff are out of work effective immediately, with the rest being phased out over the rest of the year.
Siemens described the decision as a difficult one, but said the plant was simply not viable given drastic shifts in the demands and profitability of the industry.
