Colorado officials are expected to announce today a major expansion for Vestas Wind Systems in what will become the state’s largest renewable- energy venture.
Sources familiar with the Vestas expansion said a new wind turbine complex in Brighton will employ at least 1,000 workers.
The Danish firm also is planning a separate wind tower manufacturing plant, which is not expected to be announced today. The two plants, along with suppliers that will serve the company, could create a total of 2,500 new jobs.
The Brighton site will make utility- scale wind turbines and might house a wind-power demonstration facility. It is expected to include corporate sales and administrative functions.
Pueblo is being considered as the location for the plant that will make the steel towers on which the wind turbines are mounted. Vestas is the world’s largest wind-energy manufacturer.
The company already has a major blade manufacturing plant in Windsor that employs 650 people.
Vestas’ presence in Colorado is a cornerstone of Gov. Bill Ritter’s “new energy economy” that seeks to make the state a focus of both renewable energy power plants and manufacturing complexes.
Evan Dreyer, a spokesman for Ritter, acknowledged that a “major economic development announcement” will be made today, but he declined to offer details.
Officials of Vestas and the city of Brighton could not be reached for comment.
Vestas originally planned to staff the Windsor blade plant with 400 workers on four production lines, but demand for wind turbines was strong enough that before the plant even opened, it grew to six lines and 650 workers.
The plant pays wages of about $30,000 a year for production workers. Higher-paid engineers and managerial employees bring the average salary up to about $37,000.
Vestas had sought to locate a new blade facility adjacent to its existing Windsor plant, but was unable to negotiate an agreement with Denver- based Broe Group, owner of the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor.
Vestas’ plans then grew to develop a larger-scale complex to produce blades and other parts after it was able to secure hundreds of acres of land in Brighton. In addition to blades, the new facility is expected to manufacture the high-tech electronic and mechanical guts of wind turbines, known as nacelles.
While Vestas has not confirmed Pueblo as a site for building towers, it said earlier this year that a $250 million tower plant employing 400 workers will open in Colorado by 2010.
Also earlier this year, Beaumont, Texas-based Dragon Wind said it plans to open a plant in Lamar that will build 262-foot wind-turbine towers. Additionally, ConocoPhillips plans to build a research facility in Louisville that will focus on biofuels and other energy research.
The Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as well as research centers at the state’s major universities, are viewed as providing “intellectual capital” that help draw firms such as Vestas to Colorado.
“Vestas is the first flag planted in the state for manufacturing in the wind-energy sector,” Don Elliman, director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, said when Vestas opened the Windsor plant in March. “We hope they’ll prove to be something of a bell cow.”
The Windsor facility is producing about 1,800 blades a year for new wind farms in Colorado and other states.
Vestas has said that the wind-tower plant will produce 900 towers a year.
The firm’s expansion in Colorado is occurring despite repeated failures by Congress this year to extend a federal tax credit on the production of wind power. The credit expires at the end of this year.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
