Ritter, Danish royalty tour site of new wind turbine plants

BRIGHTON - Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, Mary, joined Gov. Bill Ritter for the ground breaking of two new factories that will soon bring nearly 1,400 jobs to the Front Range.

Danish-based Vestas Wind Systems is expected to make blades for wind turbines at one plant and nacelles (the housings for the turbine's generator, transformer and gearbox) at the other. Both plants are in Brighton and will eventually employ about 1,350 people when they're completed next year.

Vestas already has a blade-making plant in Windsor, 50 miles north of Denver, which has about 200 workers and is expected to have 650 at full employment.

The company also plans a factory in Pueblo to build the towers that support the turbines. Vestas has said the plant, which will employ about 400 people, will be the world's largest turbine-tower factory.

Ritter says the groundbreaking is a sign that despite the recession, efforts to bring diversified industries to Colorado will pay off.

"We believe it helps us move forward and should give confidence to the people of the state that we're poised to come out of it and that we've focused on the 21st century companies as a part of our administration," said Ritter.

The Crown Prince told the crowd that when Denmark hit a recession in the 80s, it still invested in wind power, a move, he says, propelled the country into properity over the next decade.