Agglomeration and the Green Energy Sector in the Front Range

"The decision to establish manufacturing in Brighton follows a thorough placement analysis conducted in cooperation with the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Metro Denver and Upstate Colorado. Among the reasons for choosing Brighton are its central location, easy access to rail services and highway infrastructure, and proximity to the plant in Windsor. Creating manufacturing efficiencies and access to a large pool of qualified workers were also important factors in selecting Brighton.

'I am delighted that we have found the location for our new blade factory and we look forward to beginning operation in our first manufacturing cluster in the USA,' says Ole Borup Jakobsen, President of Vestas Blades A/S and continues: 'I am confident we will maintain our good relationships with the authorities in Brighton and Weld County as we continue to develop this new Vestas site.'

'We are extremely pleased to be building Vestas’ largest nacelle assembly factory to date. Denver and the surrounding areas give us direct access to a large, qualified workforce, and this was one of the primary reasons for choosing Brighton,' says Søren Husted, President of Vestas Nacelles A/S. 'Our new factory will be designed according to the most efficient Lean manufacturing principles, and we expect Brighton to become the center for Vestas Nacelles’ activities in the USA.'"
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Excerpt from Local Press Release No. 5/2008 from Vestas Americas A/X, August 15, 2008, Vestas Builds Two New Factories in Colorado.


Are the positive externalities associated with agglomeration effects starting to take hold in the green energy sector in Colorado's Front Range? The recent announcements by Danish wind power generation manufacturer Vestas are an indicator that the answer may be "yes".

Vestas has an existing windmill blade manufacturing plant in Windsor, Colorado and will be building additional facilities in Brighton. The company has also announced it will be siting a wind tower manufacturing plant some place in Colorado, possibly Pueblo.

See the full story in The Denver Post with a video of Governor Ritter discussing the news. See David Milstead's article in The Rocky Mountain News for a good analysis of the economic development incentives involved in landing the deal.

One really exciting aspect of the Vestas' announcements is they represent a hard to come-by growth in manufacturing jobs.