Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is moving into a gusty business in the United States. The company is a leading supplier of the big blades used on electricity-generating wind turbines. This January, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries set up a joint venture in the United States to market its wind turbine blades there. And the new joint venture simultaneously established a company in Mexico to manufacture the blades.

It's clean. It's safe. It's an important source of power. It's from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Industry analysts estimate that the total potential for wind-generated electric power in the United States is approximately 4,000 gigawatts. That is more than five times the total generating capacity presently installed in that nation. Wind turbines account for less than three gigawatts of that capacity. So the potential for growth is immense.    The United States is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' main market for wind turbines. The company has supplied blades and other items for some 1,100 wind turbines there, mainly in California, Wyoming and Texas. Those wind turbines have an aggregate generating capacity of approximately 502 megawatts. Three-Diamond Zephyrs The growth potential of the U.S. market encouraged management at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to double their presence there. They are aiming for annual sales of about $300 million in windturbine components and systems. Management decided that production capacity would be essential to attaining that target. They also decided that a local partner would be valuable. So they opted for a joint venture.    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries embarked on the joint venture through a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Florida-based Mitsubishi Power Systems. That company's counterpart in the joint venture is TPI Composites, Inc., based in Rhode Island. The partners call their new venture VienTek, and its offices occupy space in TPI Composites' headquarters.    VienTek's Mexican production subsidiary, called VienTek S de RL, is in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Plans call for the plant to begin producing wind turbine blades this July, and it will be able to produce blades annually for enough wind turbines to generate 400 megawatts.

Mitsubishi Electric is helping to banish a curse of industrial society. It has developed technology that breaks down more than 99% of the dioxin in the exhaust of incinerators. Dioxin, which is ferociously carcinogenic, is a notorious impurity in herbicides and also can arise from the incineration of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics.    The promising technology from Mitsubishi Electric centers on a process called advanced oxidation. In an incinerator's exhaust system, the processing would break down the dioxin in the exhaust gas by oxidizing the substance. The process is effective in breaking down gaseous and particulate dioxin. It is the world’s first practical method for decomposing exhaust-borne dioxin directly at such a high rate of efficiency.    Mitsubishi Electric developed the dioxin-deleting technology under a contract from Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), which operates under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The company mixes ozone and hydrogen peroxide in activated water, a highly corrosive liquid that contains the OH radical. It sprays the activated water into the incinerator exhaust as a mist, and the water breaks down the dioxin into benign substances. Simple Numerous companies and organizations, including Mitsubishi Electric, have developed technologies addressing the problem of dioxin emissions from incinerators. Precise management of the combustion temperature can prevent the generation of dioxin, but the necessary technology requires heavy investment. Capturing the dioxin is another option, but the problem of neutering the dioxin remains.    Mitsubishi Electric's technology is adaptable to existing incinerators, which could make it immediately available at a vast range of sites. Incinerator operators could use exhaust filters in combination with the Mitsubishi Electric technology to reduce dioxin emissions further.

Living near an incinerator could become a lot safer, thanks to Mitsubishi Electric.