(AP) -- Clemson University has awarded a $22 million contract to a Mount Pleasant company to build its new center to test wind turbines along the South Carolina coast.
The university announced Tuesday that Choate Construction Co. will build the facility. AEC Engineering, which has offices in Minneapolis and Richmond, Va., will be paid $2.4 million to design the building.
The nearly $100 million facility will be built in a warehouse at the old Charleston Naval Base in North Charleston and is scheduled to open in late 2012.
The federal Energy Department gave Clemson $45 million in stimulus money for the project. The state and private donors are providing another $53 million.
The center will test drive trains to take energy from the wind turbine's rotating blades to power electric generators.
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