It now looks likely that Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer will build a blade manufacturing plant in Nortern Colorado, near Windsor. I’d guess that some of the factors that made Danish Vestas consider locating here are:
The proximity to NREL’s Wind Technology Center for turbine testing.
Amendment 37, which will require large investments in wind farms in Colorado.
The State’s central location, making it easy to ship blades anywhere in North America.
Political support for wind, especially from newly elected Bill Ritter and the Democratically controlled state legislature.
Colorado’s excellent wind resource.
The 500 high-paying jobs will be ones wind advocates can point to when talking about the benefits of renewable resources over fossil fuels.
UPDATE:
It’s official. According to this follow-up article in the Rocky Mountian News, transport was indeed crucial to winning the bid. In particular, they wanted a site with rail service.
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