Biden to Visit World’s Largest Wind Tower Manufacturer

WASHINGTON — President Biden will visit the world’s largest wind turbine tower manufacturing plant on Wednesday, part of a trip the White House postponed last month due to the Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent military action in Gaza.

During his appearance at the CS Wind factory, Biden is expected to talk about how his economic policies — popularly known as “Bidenomics” — have mobilized investment in clean energy manufacturing and created good-paying jobs in the process.

Earlier this year, CS Wind, which is headquartered in South Korea, broke ground on an over-$200 million expansion to their Pueblo, Colorado, facility, and directly attributed their investment to the Inflation Reduction Act and the president’s clean energy agenda.

The first phase of the new facility is expected to be complete by summer 2024 with phases two and three expected to be complete by 2028. When the expansion is complete, CS Wind’s total footprint will be more than 850,000 square feet. 

Most importantly, from an economic development perspective, the investment will create over 850 new jobs when the plant is fully operational.

That’s in addition to the 250 new jobs CS Wind has added to its Colorado payroll this year alone.

At the company’s groundbreaking on the site, CS Wind Chairman Seong-Gon Gim predicted the company’s investment “will have a transformative impact on our environment, economy and local Colorado society.”

He later explained to officials and journalists attending the April event that the company’s commitment to the facility was made possible by the 2022 passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included tax incentives for clean energy projects. 

He went on to say CS Wind’s investment addresses two goals outlined in the legislation: it is helping to both build American clean energy supply chains and to create clean energy jobs. 

The massive investment is in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, represented by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., one of the administration’s harshest critics in Congress.

Biden is expected to go to great lengths in his remarks Thursday to explain how Boebert not only opposed the job-creating legislation, which she referred to in 2022 as “dangerous for America,” a “massive failure,” and “bad for Colorado’s 3rd District,” but also said that voting against the Inflation Reduction Act would be “the easiest no vote yet.” 

The president will also undoubtedly contrast Boebert’s sentiments with the White House’s tally of some $5 billion in announced investments by companies in Colorado since the IRA was enacted — including hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in the representative’s district alone. 

Last October, Primergy Solar announced a $400 million investment to build a 1,900-acre solar field in Pueblo that could power up to 56,000 homes and create 250 jobs.

Biden is also expected to note that at the same time the state was reaping the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, his other signature piece of legislation, the bipartisan infrastructure law, provided nearly $17 million to redesign streets and better connect the westside of Pueblo — an area long in need of revitalization — to its downtown.

The bipartisan infrastructure law also provided $13.2 million to revitalize Main Street in Delta, Colorado — and both communities are located in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.

According to a fact sheet from the White House, the law also invested $160 million in the Arkansas Valley Conduit — a 103-mile water pipeline that starts in Pueblo and will bring water to 50,000 people across southeastern Colorado.

As for CS Wind, the company has been on a growth tear since 2003, when it opened its first wind turbine tower production facility in Vietnam.

As of 2021, the company has been operating production facilities in eight countries on three continents, producing more than 13,000 towers for major industry customers such as Vestas, Siemens-Gamesa, GE and Goldwind.

CS Wind is also expanding in other ways, including the manufacturing of turbine bearings.

In addition to its success and potential to continue to grow, another attribute that makes it an appealing showcase for the White House is its commitment to operating under a “green” philosophy spelled out in its mission statement, which says the company will “Progress Under Harmonious Coexistence between Mankind and Mother Nature.”

During his visit to the U.S., Gim stressed that the company is aiming to achieve “high-level” environmental, social and governance standards that generate ethical and human-rights-based management along with reasonable and fair profits, while also strengthening the company’s competitive edge.

The visit to the CS Wind facility isn’t the only thing on the president’s schedule in Colorado. On Tuesday, the day before his plant tour, Biden is expected to appear at a fundraising event in the Denver area alongside Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue