As Siemens Energy’s wind power business announced Thursday that it has opened a new wind power distribution facility in Wichita. The 73,000-square-foot warehouse, with seven acres of outside storage, will provide procurement, kitting, storage, refurbishment and distribution for the tooling needed to erect and install wind turbines throughout the Americas region. The center will also provide storage, repair and distribution for all new unit transport framing and hardware used to move towers, nacelles and blades throughout the region. The scope of the facility and the number of employees, currently at 12, is expected to grow as the company’s local sourcing initiatives expand.

The Wichita facility will provide support and distribution services for wind projects throughout the U.S., and locally in Kansas, where Siemens is providing Duke Energy with 73 SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines for its Ironwood wind project in Spearville, scheduled to be commissioned late next summer. With an installed capacity of 168 megawatts (MW), the Ironwood wind project is expected to provide clean power to more than 50,000 households in Kansas. Also in Kansas, Siemens is supplying 57 wind turbines for Duke Energy’s Cimarron II wind project in Gray County, Kansas, scheduled for commissioning in May 2012.