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Chicago Pushes to be Wind Power Capitol
Produced by Gabriel Spitzer on Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Nordex just opened their U.S. headquarters in Chicago, but say they probably wouldn't build turbines in Illinois any time soon. (WBEZ/Gabriel Spitzer)

The governor of Illinois kicked off a massive wind power convention today at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Chicago is making a play to become the nation’s wind power hub, but it faces stiff competition.

At least eight major wind power companies have their corporate headquarters in Chicago. The region also has a number of factories churning out turbine parts, and officials would love to get their hands on some more of those green jobs. But Illinois was a bit late to the game in crafting policies and incentives to lure them, says Josh Magee with Emerging Energy Research. He says states like Iowa have already sopped up a lot of the demand.

MAGEE: We’ve already seen a substantial amount of investment in many of these components. Illinois or any other state that is looking to attract new investments is, in a very real way, now playing catch up.

The German firm Nordex opened its North American headquarters in downtown Chicago last week. But CEO Ralf Sigrist says Illinois ranks pretty low on his list of places to actually make windmills.