Vestas to Build World’s Largest Wind Turbine Tower Plant

May 10, 2008 – Vol.13 No.7

Vestas to Build World’s Largest Wind Turbine Tower Plant in Colorado; Continues Global Expansion.

The company, which opened its first US factory in March in Windsor, Colorado, expects US growth for wind turbines to be robust in coming years with 25 states having adopted targets for renewable energy's proportion of the local energy mix along with expectations that the production tax credit (PTC will be renewed by Congress.

Vestas also believes that other European suppliers of wind turbine components will also set up shop in the US with stronger legislative support for wind energy. (Stronger support is expected in the next presidency with all candidates supporting renewable energy.)

The tower production facility, representing an investment of EUR 160 million, ($248 million) will be fully commissioned from mid-2010 with an annual processing capacity of 200,000 tons of steel, corresponding to about 900 towers. Vestas currently uses about 400,000 tons of steel annually in its tower production. The tower factory will substantially increase the in-house share of Vestas’ tower production. At the end of 2010, Vestas Towers will employ about 400 people in Colorado.

As part of its US expansion, Vestas will also establish a research and development center in 2009.

Vestas also has factory construction projects in Spain, China, Denmark as well as Inner Mongolia to build turbines for the Chinese market. Together the new factories will increase annualized capacity by 3,000 MW in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Vestas, headquartered in Randers, Denmark, is the world’s largest producer of wind turbines. (5/8/08)

Links:

Vestas
http://www.vestas.com

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Disclaimer, Forward-Looking or Safe Harbor Statement on original press release: No