Vestas, Colorado production ramps up

Vestas Wind Systems will add 1,700 jobs in the United States in the next few months as the Danish wind turbine-maker ramps up production at its Colorado factories.
In an interview published Wednesday night by Bloomberg, CEO Ditlev Engel said Vestas will grow its U.S. work force from 2,300 to 4,000 "in coming months."
The news comes less than a month after the company said it would slash 3,000 jobs in Europe, where it will close down several high-cost factories, mostly in Denmark.
"The cheapest way to produce electricity in the United States from wind is to make it in the U.S.," Engel told Bloomberg. He is in Seoul, South Korea, to advise the Group of 20 leaders on clean energy job creation.
While the European market shrinks, Vestas continues to invest in the U.S. The company has invested more than $1 billion to build four factories in Colorado.
Earlier this month, Vestas announced that it had landed an order for 32 turbines for a wind project near Idaho Falls, Idaho, with portions of the wind turbines to be built in Vestas’ Colorado factories.
The company has its North American headquarters in Portland, Ore., where in August it announced it would move to a new 172,000-square-foot building in 2012. Vestas has said it will add 100 jobs in Portland in the next year.
"We are ramping up and investing in the U.S. because we have a high confidence in the U.S. market as one of the most important wind markets on this planet," Vestas spokesman Michael Holm told Bloomberg.