Gearbox Express, North America's only provider of down-tower, wind gearbox re-manufacturing services, opened its new headquarters in Mukwonago, WI, by attracting private investment capital, along with a $3.4 million low interest, through the Wisconsin Clean Energy Manufacturing Revolving Loan Fund. The company made the move from a 43,000-square-foot building at 909 Perkins Drive to the new 75,000-square-foot facility just south of the village.
The primary reason for the move was the company’s need for more space.
“When we launched, all we saw was opportunity. There are more than 50,000 active turbines in the United States and it’s a fact that the gearboxes will need replacing during their lifetime,” said Bruce Neumiller, CEO of Gearbox Express, in a statement. “The wind farm owners want their investments to keep running and for us to help protect and manage their assets. Demand exceeded all of our expectations and here we are today - officially opening our new headquarters which is twice the size of our first space, with room to grow.”
Gearbox Express was started in 2012 and has grown quickly.
“Two-thirds of the value of an American wind farm is made in the USA. A robust U.S. supply chain, in particular a thriving operations and maintenance sector, will be critical to quadrupling American wind power to 20 percent of the grid by 2030, and saving consumers money while doing it,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, in a statement. “We’ve been saying all along that stable policies for clean energy will keep U.S. factory jobs and create new ones. AWEA welcomes this new Gearbox Express plant to the over 500 manufacturing facilities in 43 states that are part of our clean energy success story.”
To start Gearbox Express, millions of dollars of investment capital was collected, along with a $3.4 million low interest, revolving loan from the Wisconsin State Energy Program, according to the announcement.
Gearbox Express’s climate-controlled facility offers two highly flexible, technologically advanced test stands that “rival any in the world,” Neumiller said. Gearbox Express technicians remanufacture the gearboxes to the latest revision level and then conduct a rigorous load test on its regenerative test stand.
GBX also keeps an inventory of remanufactured gearboxes and its proprietary gearbox, Revolution, in its GBXchange program to allow for immediate swap-outs of gearboxes when they’re being removed from the turbine. The company also has reserves of universal and proprietary parts that ship worldwide.