WORLD'S LARGEST WIND TURBINE MAKER OPENS FIRST USA PLANT

MSNBC:

The world's largest wind-turbine maker officially opened its first U.S. manufacturing plant this week on Colorado's northern plains, where it expects to produce blades for 600 turbines a year.

Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems will eventually employ 600 workers at its 400,000-square-foot plant outside Windsor, about 60 miles north of Denver. It has about 200 workers now.

... The plant will make 130- and 144-foot long blades weighing about 6 tons each. They will be used on two turbine sizes, producing either 1.65 megawatts or 3 megawatts.

One 3-megawatt wind turbine can supply more than 1,000 homes with electricity for one year, Vestas said.

Vestas has installed more than 33,500 wind turbines in 63 countries and employs more than 15,000 people worldwide.

Vestas cited Windsor's access to rail services and a skilled work force as reasons for choosing the location.

The town and Weld County offered Vestas incentives worth a total of about $1.1 million in deferred development fees and tax breaks, interim Town Manager Kelly Arnold said.

• RTWT. A GERMAN FIRM IS OPENING ONE IN MONTANA.
• THESE ARE GOOD DEVELOPMENTS:
• WE SHOULD BE AS DIVERSIFIED AS THE MARKET WARRANTS.
• ER UM... AT THE RATE THE DANISH PLANT CAN PRODUCE THEM, IT WOULD ONLY TAKE ABOUT 300 YEARS FOR THEM TO BUILD ENOUGH WIND TURBINES TO POWER AMERICA'S HOMES.
• I GUESS WE'LL BE USING COAL AND OIL FOR A WHILE, THEN, WON'T WE... HEH.