It requires an industry to turn that wind into electricity. Part of that industry is making turbines. Part of making turbines is what DMI Industries does. Kevin Ishmael, DMI: “We manufacture tubular towers for the wind industry right now…”

Asian and European wind companies are perhaps ahead of most U.S. companies in turbine parts manufacturing but towers and blades are huge and need to be where the assembly takes place because shipping such enormous pieces very far is just too expensive, especially in a carbon-constrained world.

Turbine towers are built as 3 sections aptly named “cans” because they look like giant cans, 40 to 50 feet long and 15 feet in diameter. Each has its own blueprints for affixing electrical components. The cans are assembled at the wind farm site by bolting one atop another.

DMI presently has orders through 2012. They and other turbine part manufacturers are working 24/7 to meet a demand that will only keep on growing as the industry drives steadily toward producing 20% of U.S. electricity by 2030.

Ishmael, about his 200 employees demanding labor: “They’re very proud of being a part of their future and that’s where wind energy is, its part of their future…”

They’re probably pretty happy about the money, too.