Engineering firm, wind turbine manufacturer settles in Pflugerville

Pflugerville is set to be the laboratory for a technology that could put a growing wind turbine manufacturer on the map.

Wetzel Blade is the manufacturing arm of Wetzel Engineering, which started in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2001 but relocated to Pflugerville in July. Previously, Wetzel Engineering would only design wind blades and license them out to other companies. With Wetzel Blade, they are now making wind turbine blades, which are the wing-like structures on wind turbines.

CEO Kyle Wetzel said his company is set to start manufacturing the turbine blades at a 9,000-square-foot facility in October. The site, 3914 Gattis School Road, is in an unincorporated area wedged between Round Rock and Pflugerville.

Wetzel aimed to bring about a "revolutionary design" when he spun his engineering company off into a wind turbine manufacturer, he said.

The company designed the turbine blades with support from a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The turbine blades were designed to be more lightweight and thus streamline inspections. Wetzel said they hope the designs will facilitate more applications of the light weight material they use in the manufacturing process. Examples he gave included infrastructure such as bridges and architectural buildings like sports arenas.

"This is where our vision of the future of wind blade manufacturing is, and we've gotten a lot of attention worldwide for this technology we are developing," he said. "This is one of the primary projects we want to commercialize through Wetzel Blade."

Coined as "space-frame blade design," Wetzel said investors' ears perk up when they hear about plans for the technology. Its use outside of wind energy could be worth billions, he said.

Wetzel said the factory's impact will be felt locally through job creation.

The company has 15 employees on its payroll in 2014 but plans on increasing to about 50 to 100 in three years. When the manufacturing facility opens it will employ about 20 workers, Wetzel said.

"Jobs are going to be created here," said Gary Kanaby, director of marketing and sales.

Prior to relocation, the company conducted an internal poll asking employees if they would move to the Austin area. All but two were willing, Wetzel said.

Wetzel said the company's relocation was influenced by Austin's economy, large contingent of renewable energy businesses and investor community. The pool of young professionals also helped, he said.

"It's very easy to recruit here," Wetzel said. "Young people want to come and stay in Austin, so that's made it very easy."

With Wetzel Blade, the company finally has its "hands-on" component to the company Wetzel said.

"People wanted to know why we didn't build blades, why we didn't do hands-on [manufacturing]," he said. "And after enough years of answering that question, I finally said, 'I don't know why we're not doing that. It's probably a good business that we ought to be doing.'"