Colorado could soon be home to the world’s largest wind turbine factory. However, officials with the company building the facility is remaining tight-lipped about exactly where in Colorado it would be built.
The Greeley (CO) Tribune reports Denmark-based Vesta Wind Systems won’t say whether it intends to build the plant with its current factory in Windsor:
The near $250 million tower production facility is expected to be fully operation in mid-2010 with an annual processing capacity of 200,000 tons of steel, or 900 towers, and bring 400 new jobs to the state. Vestas also plans to establish a research and development center in the United States in 2009.
Earlier this year, Vestas opened its first American blade manufacturing facility in Windsor’s Great Western Industrial Park. That $65 million, 350,000 square-foot facility, will produce more than 500, 40-meter wind turbines a year when the plant is fully operational, according to company officials.
This is the second big announcement for Vestas since first announcing its intentions to build the blade facility here last year. Originally, the company planned to employ 450 people at full capacity. But an expansion announced late in 2007 added an additional 250 jobs.
Vestas recently opened its first American blade manufacturing facility in North Central Colorado, a $65 million, 350,000 square-foot facility that will crank out more than 500, 120-foot wind turbines annually when it is at full capacity.