Danish wind turbine company Vestas (VWS.CO) announced this week that it will open an engineering site in Louisville, Colorado, to enhance the company's production capabilities throughout North America.
Vestas will move 46 employees into 47,675 square feet of space and will expand this team to include up to 125 engineers within a year’s time.
Vestas said the engineering site will improve product development by placing it close to the company’s three factories--a blades factory in Windsor, a nacelles-assembly factory in Brighton and a towers factory in Pueblo.
Finn Madsen, President Vestas Technology R&D, said the company has made a "deep commitment" to Colorado. “By co-locating engineering and design competencies with the production cluster in Colorado, the proximity of Technology R&D to manufacturing creates significant efficiencies that can be passed along as a direct benefit to our customers,” he said.
Vestas said it decided to build its North American production facilities in Colorado because of the state’s central location, extensive transportation infrastructure and rail system, existing manufacturing base and skilled workforce.
The Vestas’ Engineering Site will focus specifically on increasing wind turbine efficiency and lowering energy costs.
In North America, Vestas has established R&D offices in Madison, Houston, Texas, and Hudson, Massachusetts. This new Site will join Vestas’ Technology R&D business and will be connected to Vestas’ R&D headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark.
Vestas has supplied more than 40,500 wind turbines globally since 1979. Vestas provided its first wind turbine in North America in 1981 and since has installed more than 11,000 turbines in the region.
