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TradeWind Spring 2010 $24.00 USD $25.28CAN
With more than 30 utility-scale projects in development, culminating in a total of 8,000 megawatts of power, the award-winning company makes use of the heartland’s most abundant natural resource: wind.
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corporate profile | wind
Company Heart By Jane Caffrey
With a qualified professional team and ample resources, TradeWind Energy development company remains committed to environmental sustainability and strong relationships
wind | corporate profile
uring the two last decades, wind energy has proven to be renewable, reliable, cost-effective, and clean. And with the economical and environmental benefits, it makes sense that the importance of wind power is growing in the United States. For the past ten years, one Kansas company, TradeWind Energy, has remained on the cutting edge – developing thousands of megawatts of wind power throughout the central third of the United States. With more than 30 utility-scale projects in development, culminating in a total of 8,000 megawatts of power, the award-winning company makes use of the heartland’s most abundant natural resource: wind. Beyond a commitment to sustainable energy, TradeWind Energy also extends heartland values through lasting relationships with local
communities in the Midwest. “Basically, our objective is to really be a material contributor in the U.S., to advance the sustainable energy sector, predominantly wind, and to have a positive impact on the local communities,” said TradeWind Energy CEO Rob Freeman. “We are a very people-centered business. That’s our culture. It starts with the people that work here, and extends to our relationships with local communities.” TradeWind Energy was founded in Kansas in 2001 by entrepreneurs Matthew Gilhousen and Geoff Coventry, with Coventry now the Senior Vice President of Operations. Freeman joined the company in 2003. “The business was a true start up, initially boot strapped together with the money of friends and family,” Coventry said. For the first five years following its establishment, TradeWind Energy funded development of its utility scale wind projects with capital invested by local angel investors. As the wind developer started to expand, the need for additional financial support to take on an increased
number of projects became evident. In the fall of 2006, TradeWind Energy formed a strategic alliance with investor Enel North America, Inc., a subsidiary of Enel S.p.A. in Italy, which has a a market capitalization of over $60 billion. “When we partnered with Enel, we were able to get a very substantial backer for our expansion,” Coventry said. The homegrown business thus created an international partnership. In recent years, TradeWind Energy has seen tremendous growth, initially making its big push to expand in 2007 after forming its partnership with Enel. To accommodate this growth, the company completed its third office expansion in November 2009 – growth quadrupling its original office space, and with an additional 11,000 square feet of warehouse space. Today, TradeWind Energy actively develops wind projects in 11 states throughout the Midwest, from Texas to Michigan and Ohio to Colorado. With several dozen projects in various stages currently underway, the company has
corporate profile | wind enough diverse projects in its portfolio to keep building into the coming years. If all of its wind projects were ultimately built, they would cumulatively provide enough energy to power 2.5 million homes. “A lot of growth has happened in the last two years, and we’re now focused on digesting what we’ve bitten off. We’ve got a lot to chew on right now,” Freeman said. Yet the company has proven itself well equipped to take on such a myriad of tasks. From both the human resources and operational perspectives, TradeWind Energy possesses the experience and assets necessary to bring any wind project to fruition. An experienced management team boasts more than 80 years of combined experience in both utilityscale and independent power project development. With a talented team of 50 full-time employees, the company also draws on the expertise of engineers, meteorologists, and biologists to develop and construct state-of-the-art wind facilities. Four meteorologists – including two with PhDs – keep the company on the forefront of the science of wind energy, while a full-time biologist leads environmental studies. “We’ve blended well. We have a nice combination of utility and entrepreneurial talent. We have an interesting combination of people and skills, and that has definitely contributed to our success,” Freeman said. TradeWind Energy is also on the cutting edge of technology in its approach to wind energy development. The company has developed industry-leading methods of collecting and analyzing data, such as placing more than 100 tall meteorological towers across the Midwest. These generate and report environmental data every ten minutes. This is an industry leading approach to wind project development. The company also utilizes custom developed mapping software, Geographic Information Systems, to support the analysis of wind sites and decision making in the project development process. TradeWind Energy also spends a tremendous amount of time and attention on environmental studies, using advanced technology such as Anabat detectors, which detect and identify bat species, and radar. “We have made significant investments in technology,” notes Freeman. “What we have done from early on is leverage our people and resources to become an industry leader in the development process.” Internally, TradeWind Energy strives to be green in its business procedures. “We
wind | corporate profile
are sustainable in our practices, through recycling and other green initiatives. We have a somewhat organically grown green team: volunteers that get together to figure out what we can do to be more sustainable as a company,” Coventry said. Last November, TradeWind Energy replaced half of its fleet vehicles (all of its development team vehicles) with hybrids, demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability within the company. The exceptional qualifications of TradeWind Energy are exemplified in its completed projects, such as the 250MW Smoky Hills Wind Farm, the largest wind facility in Kansas. This $500,000,000 project is one of the highest producing wind energy sites in the central United States, generating enough energy to power 75,000 homes. The Smoky Hills wind farm has brought tremendous economic benefit to the rural community – the project’s economic impact is expected to be more than $100 million over 20 years. Beyond developing environmentally sustainable and cost-effective projects, TradeWind Energy maintains an uncompromising dedication to community-centric development principles. “This business is very much built on relationships with landowners and rural communities,” Freeman said. “So success is largely determined by our ability to be a trusted partner, to understand their concerns, and to address their concerns. The group of
people that we have put together are not only technically competent, but are also really good people. They have been very successful in developing these local relationships.” With a long history of alliances with landowners, utilities, independent developers, and industrial businesses, the company has proven its success in forming lasting partnerships. Such relationships begin with one shared passion — developing a reliable, clean, and sustainable source of energy. TradeWind Energy, with experience, assets, and embedded heartland values, has demonstrated expertise in executing such a goal. “We want to be known as a leader in the industry for developing energy projects in a responsible manner. We take a lot of pride in the projects that we develop, and how we develop them. We are not a company
that wants to cut corners. And people are really at the heart of the business,” Coventry said. “Doing energy right is a phrase that captures all of our objectives.” ELT
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