Vestas Wind Systems gets order for 139 turbines for wind farm on eastern Colorado plains

Colo. wind project orders 139 turbines from Vestas

DENVER — Vestas Wind Systems has received an order for 139 turbines from Renewable Energy Systems Americas for a wind farm RES Americas is building on the eastern plains of Colorado.

Representatives for Vestas and RES Americas weren’t immediately available to comment Wednesday on the value of the order. Vestas said the order wouldn’t change its financial expectations for the year.

The 250-megawatt wind farm at Cedar Point, about 75 miles east of Denver, is slated to be the second-largest in Colorado, Vestas said. It is scheduled to be substantially complete in late 2011.

Broomfield-based RES Americas will build the wind farm, and a U.S. affiliate of the Canadian firm Enbridge Inc. will own it, with the electricity being sold to Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc. under a 20-year contract. The companies expect the project to create about 250 construction jobs.

RES Americas also will build a 42-mile transmission line to connect the wind farm to Xcel’s power grid.

Xcel is the largest power utility in Colorado.

A law signed this year by Gov. Bill Ritter requires major utilities to get 30 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Vestas, based in Denmark, has three Colorado plants that make turbine components. It plans to add a fourth next year.

A factory in Windsor builds blades, another in Pueblo manufactures towers, and a factory in Brighton assembles nacelles that hold the turbine’s generator, transformer and gearbox. Vestas plans to build another blades factory in Brighton in 2011.