Editor's note: This is the second in a two-part series on the next steps for Energy Composites Corp. as it moves ahead with plans to build a wind-energy plant and create about 600 local jobs. The first installment appeared in Wednesday's Daily Tribune.

A planned manufacturing plant that company officials expect to create about 600 local jobs has grown significantly in size and production levels, the company's chief executive said.

Energy Composites Corp. announced plans March 31 to build a 350,000-square-foot plant in the Rapids East Commerce Center, but now, those building plans have expanded to more than 500,000 square feet, CEO Sam Fairchild said this week.

"Because of the process we went through, we have been able to engineer a much more productive, completely streamlined process," Fairchild said Tuesday during an interview with the Daily Tribune.

"We'll also be automating some very important aspects of the production that haven't been automated before."

The new designs also will boost annual production capacity from 1,500 blades to about 2,100 and allow the company to increase the maximum length of the industrial wind-turbine blades it will produce from 55 meters to 70 meters, Fairchild said. The increase could make Energy Composites the only independent plant in the United States to build the larger-size blades, he said.

Members of the Wisconsin Rapids Common Council unanimously approved the $43 million plant Tuesday evening, committing $5.3 million in taxpayer money to help support the project.

"The design and the information they have presented in their profile demonstrates a unique technology," District 7 Alderman Jim Stack said at the meeting. "They're also providing in-depth services to the purchasers of their products."

Although the expansion has caused company leaders to push back the timeline of the project by about three months, the new expected completion time -- the fourth quarter of 2010 -- now better lines up with what experts believe will be a boost in the market, Fairchild said.

"It will be happening just in time as the wind market is returning with a vengeance in 2010," he said. "We are very confident we will have a very robust market."

Meanwhile, company leaders continue to work with officials at Mid-State Technical College, the U.S. Department of Energy and Det Norske Veritas, a global certification company, to finalize a first-of-its-kind, internationally accredited wind-energy blade fabrication curriculum.

Energy Composites also remains committed to its long-term effort to promote the construction of wind farms on the Great Lakes, having attracted the attention of many in the industry, including Texas billionaire and alternative energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, Fairchild said.

"We'll be able to be uniquely positioned," he said. "It really will be the best in the world, and that's exciting."