Apr. 17--Plans for an $11 million upgrade to Acciona North America's West Branch wind turbine plant received a boost from the Iowa Department of Economic Development board Thursday.

The board approved tax benefits from the High Quality Jobs Creation Program for the project to add 30,000 square feet of plant space for final assembly of wind turbine nacelles. Nacelles are the structures that house the electric generating components of wind turbine towers.

Acciona opened the West Branch plant in late 2007 in the former Sauer-Danfoss hydraulics facility. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pamplona, Spain-based Acciona Energia.

Like many other companies in the wind power industry, Acciona has been hit by order delays and cancellations caused by the tight credit markets. The company announced plans in March to cut production at West Branch back to one shift and to lay off about 58 employees at the location.

The state also approved incentives for an Elkader startup company. Mobile Track Solutions was granted tax benefits for the creation of 20 new jobs and for investing more than $6 million in an enterprise zone.

Mobile Track Solutions will produce products for construction and agriculture. Its first product will be a towed scraper for the construction industry.

Submittal Exchange LLC in Adel was awarded $125,000 from the state's Entrepreneurial Ventures Assistance program. The company offers a computer system that allows architects, engineers and contracts to electronically review construction submittals online.

BoDeans of Le Mars was awarded $95,000 from the Physical Infrastructure Assistance Program to create 37 jobs and tax benefits from the High Quality Jobs Creation program for five jobs.

Bo Deans manufactures sugar cones and wafers used by dairy companies to make packaged ice cream treats. The project will build a duplicate of its wafer line, allowing BoDeans to expand production capacity by January 2010.

-- Contact the writer: (319) 398-8317 or david.dewitte@gazcomm.com

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