China - Metal fabrication shop to start building wind-turbine towers

A metal fabrication shop will begin building wind-turbine towers and employ three or four people, probably early next year, Town Manager Dan L'Heureux said. The owner of the company, Stephen Hallee, plans to move his business into the space vacated by PC Junkyard in the Waterville Road complex north of China village. It will operate in an 8,000-square-foot building.

Last week, Hallee received a permit for the business from the planning board, L'Heureux said.

"I understand that he has or is in the process of signing a lease right now," he said. "So I think he intends to move in pretty quickly."

The company is called Sensaflo, and will make brackets and lift kits for wind turbine towers. Hallee told town planners last week he plans to distribute them internationally.

In a separate project, the town plans to erect its own wind turbine near the elementary schools and town ballfields on Lakeview Drive. The power that the turbine generates would be used to light the fields. The planning board approved a permit to construct an 8-x-8-foot concrete slab for a base on which to construct the turbine.

The town has appropriated $15,000 for the project, which calls for a 35-foot tower. But voters will decide in February whether to appropriate an additional $9,000 in order to extend the tower to a height of 65 feet. With 12-foot blades, the turbine would stand a total of 71 feet.

Hallee's wind-turbine fabrication business came up at the same planning board meeting, but was unrelated to the town's turbine project.

However, the town may decide to purchase its tower from Sensaflo, L'Heureux said.

For more information, please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net