Vestas Towers America, Inc., announces the grand opening of the world’s largest wind tower manufacturing plant. The new Pueblo, Colorado, facility features nearly 13 million square feet of space and eight miles of on-site railway tracks for the transport of materials and finished tower components. The opening of Vestas Towers gives Vestas, a global leader in wind turbine production, a substantial capability to address growing needs among North American wind power plants for reliable, high performance wind turbines.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar joined a host of regional and local Colorado dignitaries, as well as president of Vestas Towers A/S Knud Bjarne Hansen and president of Vestas Americas Martha Wyrsch, in making the announcement during a ribbon cutting ceremony. Participants at the grand opening ceremony recognized a factory that currently employs more than 400 workers and is capable, at peak production, of producing 1,090 towers per year.
Vestas Towers America, Inc., has the ability to process more than 200,000 tons of steel per year, which is enough to build two bridges the size of the Golden Gate every year, or the equivalent of 28 Eiffel Towers. Locating the factory along major highway and railroad lines provides Vestas with the ability to meet customers’ needs with locally managed logistical efficiencies, which translates directly to cost and environmental benefits.
“We are extremely pleased to simultaneously provide job opportunities for the local community and outstanding product for our customers made right here in Colorado,” Hansen said. “We have deliberately located our factories in a central region in the U.S.—including our towers, nacelles, and blades plants—because regional centralization allows Vestas to build and ship locally in any direction needed in North America, and that translated to a direct competitive advantage for all of our stakeholders.” Go to www.vestas.com.
