RBC Bearings Inc. (USA; NASDAQ: ROLL; 5251R9N7) will receive a total of $8.3 million for two projects to manufacture bearings for wind turbine applications.

The credit comes at the same time Kaydon received a $1.7 million credit to add wind energy bearings to its Milwaukee bearing manufacturing facility. article: Kaydon receives $1.7 million in clean energy tax credit
All three awards are part of the Recovery Act Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits pool, which totaled $2.3 billion; approximately 180 projects have received awards under the program. The bundle with RBC's and Kaydon's credit totaled more than $36 million; all credits are worth up to 30% of each project's invested value.

The tax credit package is intended to interest U.S. manufacturers in producing "clean" energy related products such as wind turbines.

RBC said the $8.3 million -- $4.1 million now, and $4.2 million later -- will be used to fund its Houston, Texas wind energy bearing manufacturing plant. The company recently completed its first major investments in Houston, and the second $4.2 million will support further expansion at the plant going forward.

Dr. Michael Hartnett, RBC's CEO, said: "We recognize the important role that wind power will play in the President's initiatives for clean, domestic energy and we are grateful for the government's support of RBC Bearings' efforts to participate in this important high-growth market. These credits will support our expansion into large diameter bearings to serve the wind turbine markets. We are optimistic about the long-term prospects of this initiative and we believe that our manufacturing expertise will continue to serve us well into the future."