I think this is a great idea but who has the money to invest in this type of manufacturing? I am sure someone around here does it’s just weighing the costs of doing business in this state and meeting the market demand.

The Buffalo News, N.Y., Donn Esmonde column

The same elements that made Buffalo great can help its revival, if we get our act together. A big opportunity is staring us in the face. Unless we grab it, it will pass us by. The steel mills are gone. But the same attributes that brought Bethlehem Steel here can attract an industry of the present and future.

Eight mammoth windmills sprout from the old Bethlehem Steel site. But there is a bigger prize than turning wind into energy. We have a chance to manufacture the windmills the world needs.

Recently cleaned industrial land near the windmill site is a prime spot for a manufacturing plant. It is a road-andrail hub, with — best of all — Great Lakes access to ship the mammoth propellers.

“A lot of what a manufacturer wants, we already have in place,” said Peter Sigurdson of NYSERDA, the state’s energy agency. “The table is set for a success story.”

Our geographic advantages give us a running start in the race for a windmill plant. But our edge only counts if we get in the race. So far, we are barely at the starting line.

I think that needs to change. Renewable energy is the industry of the future. European-based windmill manufacturers are backlogged on orders and looking for U.S. manufacturing sites.

Land-locked Midwestern plants have trouble transporting mammoth windmill parts on highways. Buffalo, in contrast, has water access to the Midwest, the East Coast and Europe. The airport in Niagara Falls ships oversized cargo.

Local wind energy experts are frustrated by the lack of interest from politicians and economic development types in a growing industry.

Tom Kucharski of Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, the region’s business marketer, ranked the luring of a windmill plant as just a “medium” priority. He said the BNE’s effort has been limited to conversations with manufacturers that “didn’t work out.” Nothing will happen unless that attitude changes.

“Once the manufacturers see what we have, they will compete against each other to come,” said Mark Mitskovski of BQ Energy, which developed the eight-windmill Lackawanna site. “But you have to document your advantages, package incentives, and go out and court these people. If you’re not shopping yourself, no one will buy.”

Dan Gundersen, the governor’s upstate economic czar, knows what this is about. When he worked in Pennsylvania, Gundersen persuaded windmill giant Gamesa Energy to build a 1,000-job assembly plant near Philadelphia.

“This is not a pipe dream, we have the logistical advantages to be a manufacturing center,” Gundersen said in a recent phone conversation. “The old Bethlehem Steel site is at the top of the list.”

Gundersen recently talked with Gamesa about upstate’s potential. He knows that talk is not enough. Getting a Gamesa or a Clipper Wind Power to build a plant here means handing them a package touting what we have, wrapped in tax breaks and other lures. It means the city, county, state and others joining forces and pounding away.

“We need to get one-on-one with decision- makers, get them to come here or us to go there,” Gundersen said. “I will meet with anyone to advance this.”

Gundersen cannot do it alone. Roadblocks include what Gundersen said was “a zero state budget for business marketing” until this year, a lack of private investment dollars and minimal buzz from local leaders. If the BNE — the region’s business marketer — and local politicians and business types do not push for this, we cannot expect Gundersen to lead the charge.

Opportunity awaits. It will not wait forever.

desmonde@buffnews.com

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