West Wind Energy Moves To Rush County!

A vacant building in Otis is getting a new lease on life thanks to the relocation of a business from Barton County. West Wind Energy LLC is moving into the former Ochs Inc. building and will be fully operational in the new location on Monday, November 24.

The business owned by Dr. Scott Brantley is in the business of remanufacturing wind turbines and will soon begin manufacturing new wind energy equipment. The business was located in Great Bend for three years, and Brantley is excited about the move to a larger facility.

The building will contain a machine shop, electrical department and transmission rebuild shop as well as parts storage, conference room and offices.

"It's quite an undertaking and it's exciting to see this building come back to life," said Brantley. " A driving factor in the move is Rush County opened their arms to us."

West Wind Energy has 10 employees and Brantley, who also owns a chiropractic practice in Great Bend, is planning on hiring more in several months when the business settles in to the new location and gets organized.

Brantley became interested in wind turbines when he bought one for his personal use off the online site eBay. He said it didn't work when he received it, but claims "no" is not part of his vocabulary and began learning everything he could about fixing the turbine.

He then decided to use the knowledge he learned through the experience to begin rebuilding used wind turbines. He knows wind generation is not the entire answer to energy problems, but said it can be part of the solution.