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June 19, 2009

Energy company expands to Woodward

A new business -- Atlantic Wind Energy Services -- has opened its doors in Woodward.

Located near the airport, the company performs transportation and service to the wind energy industry.

According to Mike Hayhurst, president of Atlantic Wind Energy, the business has trucks and trailers that haul all wind energy components.

The home office for the company is in Sugarland, Texas, he said.

Woodward was chosen as the location for this particular expansion of the company, he said, because “we were looking for an area that had (little) humidity. We looked all the way up into Kansas.”

During research as to where to locate the new business, Hayhurst met LaVern Phillips of the Woodward Industrial Foundation.

“Woodward made it very easy for us,” Hayhurst said. “With this location we’re in the hub of everything we do. We’re close to all the action here.”

Hayhurst was referring to windfarms in the Northwestern region of Oklahoma and down into Texas.

“We are fully engaged in opening up a field service center,” he said, noting, “We would like to open a machine shop that would service wind energy components. We would repair and refurbish energy components other than transportation and service.”

Currently, the majority of the company’s business involves transportation service for Suzlon, he said. Suzlon is a manufacturer of wind towers.

As to how the business was formed, Atlantic Wind Energy Services came into existence from a company that hauled materials, Hayhurst said.

“We modified our trailers for wind energy hauling in January 2008,” he said. “We saw there was a future in it.”

The company has several sites. One is in Rosharon, Texas, and is a 20-acre storage facility for wind energy towers.

“We have a 30,000 square foot warehouse in Houston, Texas, which also stores wind energy components,” he said. Then, there is a “20-acre facility in Brownsville, Texas, for storage and now this facility.”

The location in Woodward is a four-acre site.

According to Hayhurst, Atlantic Wind Energy Services began looking for a site about 60 days ago.

“It only took two months to decide on a location,” he said.

Phillips, who was at the new Woodward business Thursday, said, “We’re thrilled Atlantic has chosen us as a site and look forward to a long relationship with this company.”

“We’ve been very impressed with their expertise in this service for wind energy,” Phillips said.

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