Dallas-based Arcosa, a provider of infrastructure-related products serving the construction, engineering, and transportation industries, recently announced that it has secured $750 million in orders for wind towers.
Arcosa did not reveal who ordered the wind towers, but the company said the orders would support its wind energy expansion in the Southwest.
The company said the deliveries will start in 2024 and run through 2028. As a result of the deal, Arcosa is opening a new factory in Belen, New Mexico, and adding 250 jobs, according to KRQE.
“We look forward to expanding our manufacturing capacity to New Mexico, where market demand for new wind projects is robust,” said Antonio Carrillo, Arcosa’s president and CEO, in a release. “Our new facility will strengthen our position in the wind tower market and enable Arcosa to benefit from growing wind investment in the Southwest.”
The order is expected to be eligible for the 10% Advanced Manufacturing Production tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The tax credit is offered to producers of applicable critical minerals used in manufacturing, some of which include aluminum, graphite, lithium, nickel, and others, according to IEA.
Carrillo says his company has received orders in excess of $1.1 billion for its wind towers since the act was signed into law in August 2022.
“The outlook for our wind business remains favorable, reflecting rising demand for access to clean energy,” Carrillo said, according to the press release.
Wind energy continues to gain market share in the U.S., growing to 12% in 2021, from just 0.2% in 1990, according to Forbes.
“We are seeing more and more wind and solar showing up because the cost is progressively dropping,” Ronald Schoff, a director for Electric Power Research Institute, said, per Forbes.
But not everyone is sold on the viability of massive investments in harnessing the wind to generate efficient energy.
“Wind power generation has proven unreliable time and again. Texas is the leader in wind power and very rarely produces even 20% of the grid. Wind power is highly subsidized, inconsistent, and regularly underperforms compared to natural gas,” oil and gas industry advocate Richard Welch told The Dallas Express.
“Without the subsidies and tax credits, the market for wind would fall on its face. The most reliable and cost-effective power generation is NatGas and nuclear.”