Wind Turbine Co. Diversifies into Cell Towers

April 3, 2014

Juhl Energy Services, which for 35 years has been providing operations, maintenance and administrative services for wind turbines, is looking to take advantage of the synergies between the wind energy and wireless infrastructure. In the latter half of 2013, it formed Juhl Tower Services through a joint venture with Matt Denney Tower Service (MDTS) to build, upgrade and maintain cell towers.

“We entered this business sector because the cellular companies view our core wind business as having key similarities to the upgrade and servicing of cell towers – mainly, knowing how to manage the safety, quality and logistics of performing highly-specialized services while climbing significant heights in the wind turbine business,” said John Mitola, Juhl Energy president.

The tower services division is now positioning itself for growth, integrating its business with MDTS, an 8-year-old cell tower company based in Chatham, Ill. Juhl Tower now has 30 employees and will be based in Chatham.

Most of Jewel Tower’s work so far has been focused on installing LTE antenna upgrades to existing towers for cellular carriers. It has completed work on 156 cell tower sites, in several states from Illinois to West Virginia. In the future, Mitola plans to expand into full-scale construction, ownership and operation of cell towers. “It is a business model that would be consistent with our Juhl Renewable Assets subsidiary and its ownership and operation of energy assets,” he said.

Juhl Energy has added to its management team to handle the expected growth. Matt Denney, previously with MDTS, will serve as Juhl Tower’s senior vice president of operations, while Tom White will continue as Juhl Tower’s chief operating officer. Additionally, Mike Borkowski has been added as senior vice president of finance and business development of Juhl Tower.

“Our team has grown both in the field and in the back office, which has positioned Juhl Tower to expand our customer base, our range of services and our geographical footprint to serve more customers in more regions,” Mitola said. “The added members to our executive team have allowed me the opportunity to focus on one of our new initiatives – the acquisition of existing cell towers to add to our Juhl Renewable Assets portfolio.”

Juhl Tower’s work in the fourth quarter of 2013 and in the early part of 2014 showed an increase in the number of sites completed and Mitola is optimistic that this number will grow.

“We believe the acceleration in the demand for cellular communication towers will continue. We already have our cellular clients talking to us about projects they have planned into 2016,” he said.