By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOT In what he views as a “paradigm shift in the global economy” towards sustainability and green technologies, Peter Loescher, president and CEO of Siemens AG, predicts that when today’s global economic crisis ends, the United States will become one of the world’s most advanced markets for green technologies. Loescher bases his premise on the fact climate change and energy security have become critical issues that, regardless of these economic challenged times, governments are committed to making changes. “Our view at Siemens is that more industrialization and more growth will arise from the current crisis. The color of this industrialization will be green,” he says. Logistics Opportunities This is good news to any company or seaport involved in transporting green tech machinery such as wind turbines and their apparatus. Just ask the folks at Minnesota’s Port of Duluth where handling wind turbines for Siemens adds nicely to its balance sheet for freight tons. “With what’s come through already and what’s on the books for the remainder of 2010, it looks like we will pass the 900,000 freight ton mark by the end of the year,” says Adele Yorde, spokesperson for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. That’s why the port authority says “nearly a million freight tons” in its press releases, she told AJOT in a telephone interview. The fact is, the Port of Duluth has handled nearly 1 million freight tons of wind turbine components alone in the past five years. Most have been inbound moves for manufacturers in Germany, Denmark and Spain for delivery to major projects in the Upper Midwest. In fact, on the day this reporter spoke to Ms. Yorde, she commented that the port authority had just unloaded a ship the day before with inbound wind turbine nacelles for project on the border of Colorado and Nebraska. Other such shipments have been destined for projects in Montana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and now Wyoming. “We have also handled shipments of blades made in North Dakota outbound to Spain, Canada, Brazil and Chile,” she adds. Nearly all of the shipments are wind energy components for Siemens Energy. Since the port began handling the equipment in 2005, all shipments have been arriving on ships and moving out of the port primarily on trucks. From a dimensional and weight standpoint, Siemens Energy manufactures some of the largest wind turbines ever handled through the Port of Duluth. Rail Factors In June 4, 2010 marked a new chapter in the business. For the first time, Siemens imports of wind turbines and their parts departed the seaport by rail. Port officials refer to the move as the start of a new “green” chapter in wind energy component transportation logistics for this most western section of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway system. The shipment involved 24 Siemens wind turbine nacelles and spinners/cones. This shipment, along with 33 containers, originated in Denmark where they were loaded onboard the Metsaborg for a two-week voyage straight to the Port of Duluth. There the cargo was stored in satellite laydown yards on the terminal until employees at Lake Superior Warehousing Co. Inc. spent nearly a week loading the wind turbine nacelles and cones onto rail cars bound for Casper, Wyoming, 750 miles away. These were loaded onto specialty railcars at the Clure Public Marine Terminal at the Port of Duluth. The railroad segment was handled jointly by Union Pacific and BNSF Railway. From Casper, the wind turbine nacelles and cones were trucked to Duke Energy’s “Top of the World” 101.2-megawatt project in Converse County, Wyoming. Meanwhile, a week or so later a second ship, the BBC Sweden, arrived with additional nacelles plus hubs for the same project. This resulted in a second unit train leaving Duluth for Wyoming. With more Siemens wind turbine shipments expected, more rail transport projects are anticipated this year. “One of the advantages of using our port