JACKSON TWP.: The energy business is changing and the Timken Co. is gearing up to be ready for the next generation of turbines.
The company’s partnership with Stark State College, the Stark Development Board and the Stark County Port Authority broke ground Tuesday on the $11.8 million Wind Energy Research and Development Center on 15 acres at Shuffel Drive and Frank Avenue Northwest.
The 18,000-square-foot building is expected to house 65 jobs.
Timken has a reputation for making bearings for transportation, but Board Chairman Tim Timken said windmills with diameters of up to 130 yards are in the company’s future.
“The partnership we are launching today with this groundbreaking will provide testing capabilities for the massive bearings and sealing systems needed to support the next generation of wind turbines – wind turbines, bearings weighing more than 5 tons, big enough for you to drive an SUV right through the center of it,” Timken said.
He told a group of about 100 people that wind provides about 0.25 percent of the world’s energy but he sees it growing to 8 percent.
He’s vague about how that translates into sales for the company.
“We don’t talk about numbers publicly but it is probably one of the fastest-growing markets that’s out there for us, so it could become a very significant part of our business,” he said after the presentation.
Timken said the company makes “ultra large bearings for main-shaft applications but also small products for gear box applications. We make that in South Carolina, Romania and China today. Down the road, depending on how things develop, there’s nothing that would say it couldn’t be [the Akron-Canton area].”
Timken will invest $6 million in the center; the Ohio Third Frontier Commission will invest $2.1 million and the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority’s Advanced Energy Jobs Stimulus Program is loaning $1.5 million.
It will offer Stark State students “critical experience conducting research, developing new designs and testing large wind-turbine bearing systems,” a news release said. “It will also provide critical training for current and future technicians across the spectrum of operating services required by today’s wind turbine manufacturers and operators.”
Dave Scott can be reached at 330-996-3577 or davescott@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Scott on Twitter at Davescottofakro.
