Goss Looking Into Wind Turbine Business

By: E&P Staff While Goss International's former factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is now a wind turbine manufacturing plant, the printing equipment maker is now considering getting into the business of wind power.

Goss learned of Maine inventor Ben Brickett's patent-pending low-wind-speed generators through a University of New Hampshire professor.

Still in discussions with engineer Ben Brickett, Goss is "enthusiastic about the possibility of doing some work with him," Goss spokesman Greg Norris earlier this month told Foster?s Daily Democrat of Dover, N.H., home to Goss offices and one of its plants.

Norris said Goss also "has been in contact with other turbine makers," and though it is not retreating from its traditional business, he told Democrat reporter Adam D. Krauss that turbines are a good fit with some of its mechanical and electrical capabilities, especially for "precise high-speed components."

Goss could be ready for turbine work this summer at its plant in nearby Durham, according to Norris.

Goss' old Cedar Rapids plant is now a division of Clipper Windpower, a California firm and one of many that have set up shop in the windy stretch from Minnesota to Texas. Clipper makes larger, faster, high-capacity wind turbines. Its plant is managed by a former Goss supervisor, according to The Christian Science Monitor.