With interest growing in the potential of wind power, an event planned for next week will explore business opportunities in the industry.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise will host the Wind Component Manufacturing Symposium on July 15 at the Millennium Hotel in Cheektowaga. Organizers say the event is aimed at introducing companies not presently in the market to ways they can become part of the wind industry supply chain.

Guest speakers will include Carol Murphy, the executive director of Alliance for Clean Energy New York, and Patrick Timon, senior service manager of GE Drivetrain Technologies. Representatives of Moog, Phillips Lytle and Hodgson Russ also are scheduled to participate.

Local attention to wind power has increased in recent years with the debut of the Steel Winds project in Lackawanna and the New York Power Authority’s vision of creating a wind farm off the shores of Lake Erie or Ontario.

Economic development leaders hope the growth of wind power industry will in turn generate work and jobs for companies that supply parts or services to the sector.

BNE says a number of companies could take advantage of the growth of the wind power industry, such as manufacturers and suppliers of mechanical and electrical components, construction businesses and transportation companies that support moving large-scale items over land, rail and sea.

For more information on the symposium, go to

www.buffaloniagara.org

.