Flender Corp. has broken ground on a 124,500-square-foot warehouse adjacent to its 16-year-old building on Madeline Drive in Elgin.

Flender, a German-based company that supplies gearboxes, generators and services for wind turbines and related industries, is ready to continue its growth in that field, Flender President Kerry Klein said.

“By enhancing our service capabilities, we are poised to significantly improve lead times, efficiency and cost effectiveness, reinforcing our position as a leader in both industry and wind service sectors,” Klein said.

In addition to providing warehouse space, the new Elgin building will have in-house gear regrinding capabilities and provide consolidated storage, a news release on the expansion said.

Flender will celebrate its 50th anniversary in Elgin in 2026, the same year the warehouse will be ready for use. Its first building in Elgin on Tollgate Road was used until 2014, initially used to manufacture parts and assembled pump jack gear boxes for the oil industry, Klein said.

“The pump jack market fell out immediately after we built the first plant in 1976, and we immediately pivoted to other industrial applications,” he said.

That meant transitioning to assembling and servicing gear boxes and other parts and equipment used for plastic extrusion, wastewater treatment, conveyor systems for moving gravel and coal, and for systems used to process cement.

Wind energy turbines came into the picture in the late 1990s, Klein said, and repairing and repowering their gear boxes now accounts for 60% of the company’s business.

In 2009, Flender opened in its current Elgin location, a 230,000-square-foot building it now leases from Brookstone, Klein said. The new facility will cost about $22 million to build, with Flender leasing it from Pancor.“This is the last available lot in the industrial park in that area,” Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Carol Gieske said.

Klein said Elgin is a great location for the company for many reasons.

“A good amount of the equipment we assemble and service is very large and very heavy. So having access to highways is important, as is being centrally located,” he said.

The Elgin area also is less expensive than other areas in the Chicago market and has a good talent pool from which to fill their office and industrial jobs, Klein said.

Flender currently employs 175 people at its Elgin location. Under a 2023 agreement with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for tax credits, the company needs to expand its Elgin operations and to employ 190 people by the time the new building opens in early 2026.

One challenge Flender and other wind energy-related businesses are facing in the United States is the newly passed federal budget bill. The legislation will allow renewable energy projects that begin construction by 2026 or come online by 2027 to receive tax credits, which is slightly less restrictive than a previous version of the bill, published reports said.

That could make Flender and other wind energy businesses very busy during that time frame before things slow down, Klein said.

Over the decades the wind energy industry has faced political challenges, he said.

“It’s here to stay, regardless of politics,” Klein said. “Growth may be slower, particularly in the United States, but there will still be growth.”

A big reason will be the increased demand for power brought on by AI, data centers, factories, electric vehicles and other consumer goods, he said. To meet that demand, various energy sources will have to be utilized.

“Wind energy is not the whole solution, but it’s definitely part of the equation,” Klein said.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.