About Us

WESCO Wind, LLC is a wind development company that locates and develops wind farm sites. We work with local farm owners, town, city, government officials to  determine interest and feasibility of developing and constructing a wind farm to it’s delivery to utilities.

We are the grass roots effort in beginning a wind farm in your area.  We’re the first step in bringing economic growth and development inside of target areas that have suitable land and wind.

Meet the Team

Steven Estes is President.  Steve, who is the majority owner of Star, has significant construction experience and has been in the renewable energy business since 2001.  He built his first commercial wind energy project in Illinois in 2001 and a 168 MW wind project in Colorado in 2002.   Mr. Estes has built wind projects throughout the US and two wind projects in Canada.  Steve started Star in 2008.  Under Star, Steve has built a substantial wind energy, digester and solar PV project portfolio.        

David Shutte is COO.  David has responsibility for all of Star’s substantive contract negotiations, project financings and closings.  David, during his 30-year career in the energy industry, has led the development, contracting, financing and closing of about $2 Billion or 2,000 MW of electric power and renewable energy projects.  He has held Senior Business and Project Development, CFO, Legal Counsel and CEO positions for several privately-held and publicly-traded IPP companies.  David also headed up an Energy Finance practice for an investment banking firm for three years.  Mr. Shutte has focused on renewable energy projects during the last five years, where he developed, contracted, financed and closed several renewable energy projects (including wind, biomass, landfill gas to energy and hydroelectric projects) totaling about $300 million in capital costs.  David has a Bachelors degree in Business from the University of Michigan, an MBA in Finance from the University of Detroit and a Law degree from Michigan State University.  He is a member of the Michigan State Bar.       

Wayne Hesse.  Wayne is a partner on Star’s wind energy business.  He has been in the wind energy development business since 2000, being the first "Wind Farmer" to utilize John Deere as a equity partner in a Wind Project.  Wayne has been involved in numerous community wind projects in Minnesota.   

Victor Thompson.  Vic has worked in various technical capacities in the wind industry for about ten years, including field service engineering work, manufacturing engineering director for three large US OEM suppliers, managing the facility site selection, design, construction and start-up activities and project management.  He has a Bachelors degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Purdue University, and a Project Management Professional Certification from the Project Management Institute.     

Robert C. Adle
V.P. Business Development – Project Origination
Star Distributed Energy
Mr. Adle has worked as a salesman for Heston Wind and Wesco Wind, working directly with farmers and business owners seeking to install distributive wind generation or anaerobic digesters at their individual facilities.  Previously, Mr. Adle worked as an Acquisition and Development Specialist at a land development firm that specialized in recreational properties.  The projects developed by Mr. Adle had retail values ranging from one million to seven million dollars.  Mr. Adle began his career by expanding and managing a family-owned electrical contracting business over a fifteen year period.  Mr. Adle has a BBA with a Concentration in Accounting from the University of Michigan – Flint.  He holds a Master Electrician license, an EPA Section 608 Technician-Universal license, and formerly a Real Estate Salesperson license.

Clayt Tabor.  Clayt is a wind energy finance specialist.  He has over 25 years of experience that includes corporate and structured finance, commercial lending and project finance.  

John Wiltzer.  John is involved in all of the technical aspects of Star’s projects, including zoning, permitting, entitlement due diligence, construction management and general contracting.  He is a P.E. in the State of Michigan.  John has a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering.     

Emmit George.  Emmit is General Counsel for Star and President of its Energy Trading Business.  He has been in the energy industry for over 20 years.  Emmit served as a Board member of the Iowa Utilities Board.   He has been a Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Commonwealth Edison, General Counsel for an IPP and President of an energy services company.  Emmit has a Bachelors degree from Central College and a Law degree from the University of Iowa.   

Bob Adle.