LAWTON – A company that makes wind turbines plans to invest $10 million initially in development of a manufacturing plant here that will employ 300 workers within five years, the Lawton-Fort Sill Economic Development Corp. (LEDC) announced Friday.
“As we evaluated locations for our facility, we were looking for long-term partnerships that aligned with our vision, and we found this in Oklahoma and Lawton,” said Matt Carter, president and chief executive officer of Carter Wind Energy (CWE).
“Our new wind energy division in Lawton,” Carter Wind Turbines, will manufacture turbines designed to provide renewable energy to more than 160 villages in Alaska and more than 350 communities throughout Canada that are “off the electric grid” and rely on expensive diesel fuel to power their electric generators.
The CWE turbine is medium-sized (300- and 500-kilowatt) and self-erecting, portable, and designed for utility, distributed, and micro-grid power generation applications in remote locations that have extreme environmental conditions “that are not viable with conventional wind turbine technologies,” the company said.
The technology developed in Lawton will be used to replace diesel fuel with wind power, “especially in remote and developing economies where 50% or more of income is spent on energy,” Carter said. “These people desperately need access to low-cost energy,” he said.
“We provide zero risk and financing, and send power to these villages at discount prices,” Carter said.
CWE recently received two grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue development and improve access to affordable and reliable electricity, “resulting in social and economic benefits for communities that currently don’t have access,” the company reported.
The manufacturing plant will be constructed in the westside industrial park near the Goodyear tire manufacturing plant. Construction is expected to start this summer and it is hoped that production can start next spring or summer, Carter said.
The company plans to make 100 turbines during the first year of production in Lawton, “and we expect to double production every year after that,” Carter said.
Approximately 20% of the new jobs in Lawton “will be white-collar engineers and administrators,” and the majority will be technicians, “operations-and-maintenance people who know how to troubleshoot” problems with diesel engines, for example, Carter said.
The jobs offered at the Lawton plant will pay “above average wages,” Mayor Stan Booker said. The paychecks “will be significantly above minimum wage,” Carter said.
CWE evaluated several states prior to choosing Lawton.
“We went head-to-head with other communities” when vying for the Carter plant, Cooksey said. For example, “We competed with Houston for this project,” said Ron Nance, chairman of the LEDC.
“Our package was very competitive, and our community support was crucial,” Cooksey said. “We made it clear that Carter Wind Turbines can succeed here in Lawton.”
Among the “compelling” factors that attracted CWE to Lawton were the available workforce in southwest Oklahoma, the proximity of Fort Sill Army post, and the Great Plains Technology Center in Lawton, Carter said.
“This is a great day for Lawton,” said LEDC President Brad Cooksey at the start of a news conference attended by numerous local and state officials. “We look forward to this long-term partnership as Carter Wind Turbines complements and diversifies our local economy.”
A little over a year ago, on April 1, 2020, the PROPEL Capital Improvements Program endorsed by Lawton voters went into effect, Mayor Booker noted. “That’s when we hung out the ‘Open for Business’ sign.”
The Lawton City Council used CIP money “to increase funding for the LEDC so they could get their staff up to a minimum level,” Booker said, “and things are starting to happen.” The LEDC is “bringing us success just one year after being given the minimum necessary budget.”
The LEDC budget is “about $750,000” per year, Cooksey said. However, the CIP also includes funds for infrastructure, land purchases, and incentives, said Nance. Previously the LEDC received “only about 10% of the funding” it needed, Nance said.
The Comanche County Industrial Development Authority also “has been instrumental in industrial development efforts” in Comanche County, Booker said.
Booker also cited “the most comprehensive industrial TIF [tax increment financing] district in the state,” funds from which “will be reinvested into our industrial infrastructure and recruitment efforts.”
He also praised state Commerce Department Director Brent Kisling, Gov. Kevin Stitt, Great Plains Tech Center and Cameron University in Lawton, the southwest Oklahoma legislative delegation and Oklahoma’s congressional delegation “for the continued support that we receive as we transition our community to be a business and industrial magnet.”
City officials “will streamline the process to get you up and running as fast as possible,” Booker told Carter.
“There’s no ‘i’ in team, but there is an ‘i’ in win,” Cooksey quipped.
Kisling jokingly expressed his appreciation to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Golden State policies and taxes “are sending business to Oklahoma.”
He also mentioned that he was in Lawton earlier in the week for a groundbreaking ceremony marking a $50 million expansion at the Goodyear plant.
“It seems as though this community is working together … in a united vision,” Kisling said.
“Oklahoma does really well when we focus,” he said. As an illustration, in about 2009 or 2010, “We decided to focus on renewable energy,” Kisling recalled. And in a few short years Oklahoma “went from zero to second in the nation in wind energy.”
The current unemployment rate in Oklahoma is 4.3%, he said, “two points lower than the national average.”
Carter Wind Turbines “is the kind of industry any community would be proud to have,” Nance said. “The future is clean energy.”
The Matt Carter family lives in Burkburnett, Texas, but plans to relocate to Lawton within the next couple of years, officials indicated.
Carter Wind Energy has 35 years of experience in wind energy and pioneered lightweight, two-blade wind turbine design. The company built its first turbine in 1976 and sold its first to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1979. Since then more than 800 Carter turbines have been erected across the Great Plains and throughout the world, the company reports.
Among those attending the news conference were Saxon Allton, representing Gov. Kevin Stitt; Scott Chance, field representative for Congressman Tom Cole; representatives of U.S. Senators Jim Inhofe and James Lankford; Comanche County Commissioners Johnny Owens and Alvin Cargill; City Manager Michael Cleghorn; Lawton City Council members Onreka Johnson, Mary Ann Hankins, Linda Chapman, Allan Hampton and Jay Burk; state Sen. John Michael Montgomery and state Reps. Trey Caldwell, Daniel Pae and Toni Hasenbeck; Keith Bridges, economic development director for GPTC; and Lawton Public Schools Supt. Kevin Hime.