If Greg Schulte looks outside his Hebron, Kentucky plant to the north or south, he knows wind turbine gearboxes his company makes will be headed to manufacturers in brand new factories meant to capture a share of the skyrocketing wind market. If he looks to the west, he knows in a few weeks solar inverters new-to-the-U.S. will be introduced at one of the largest trade shows for that industry. Not bad for a company whose Italian forefathers started out making motorcycle parts a half century ago.

 

Schulte is president and CEO of Bonfiglioi USA, the North American division of an Italian company that serves agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and in recent years, renewable energy. I caught up with Schulte recently as he surveyed the landscape that has changed dramatically in the past couple years. “When these manufacturers are supplying their factories, they’ll be looking to supply them more locally,” he says. Schulte says the pitch and yaw gearboxes are in about one of every three turbines built now. While it ships products all over the world to its wind turbine customers, travel time and expense are going to get a lot shorter. With European turbine manufacturers now building plants in the U.S. -- Siemens in Illinois, Nordex in Arkansas and Vestas in Colorado – the supply chain is a lot shorter.

 

The bologna-based company moved into the solar markets about a decade ago, first building the gearboxes and motors that align solar panels with the sun during the hours of the day and seasons for maximum efficiency, and recently to the inverters that convert electricity from direct current to alternating current. Its 450 RPS inverter for utility scale plants, something that has been offered to European customers for a couple years, will be introduced to North America at the Solar Energy Industries Association conference in late October in Anaheim California.

 

The renewables segment of the business has grown as the economic recession has stalled its construction and motor markets, leading it to shift its resources to fill in the gaps. While the stimulus hasn’t reached his level just yet, the pending project pipeline has Schulte expecting a very busy 2010. Right when the new destinations for Bonfiglioi products are opening.