USA - Vestas decides to build a factory in Colorado

The Windsor plant was originally slated to have 450 employees but will have 650 by next year, according to Vestas. Vestas is committed to about $1 billion in capital investment in four plants in Colorado.

The global recession and credit crunch have hobbled Vestas, which reported a 34 percent drop in profit to $61 million in the second quarter compared with a year earlier.

But leading the way in sales in the first six months was the U.S., with about 15 percent of the megawatt capacity sold. While orders have dwindled since last October, a new program of rebates and tax credits, which took effect July 31, could revive the wind power market.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S, said it still expects its revenue to increase by nearly 20% this year as order flow has begun to pick up -- a sign the sector could be starting to unfreeze. Vestas said it had received orders of €700 million since the end of the second quarter.

Vestas Wind Systems releases half year financial report:
Interim financial report, second quarter 2009 - No. 1 in Modern Energy retains its forecast for 2009

Vestas generated second-quarter revenue of EUR 1,211m, an increase of 11 per cent, realising a decline in EBIT of 15 per cent to EUR 78m relative to Q2 2008. In general, quarter-on-quarter fluctuations are due to changes in the activity level and variations in the contract types.

Net working capital stood at 11 per cent of expected annual revenue, against (1) per cent the year before. The order backlog of firm and unconditional orders amounted to EUR 4.0bn at 30 June 2009.

In spite of the weak order intake since the onset of the credit crisis, Vestas retains its forecast for 2009. Since the end of the reporting period, Vestas has recorded an order intake of EUR 0.7bn with unchanged payment patterns.

Additionally, Vestas' corporate Contract Review Board will be evaluating several contracts with a total value of more than EUR 4.4bn in the upcoming period. On 28 April, Vestas announced the necessity of lay-offs in Northern Europe due to lack of demand.

In Denmark, 1,142 employees were laid off, whilst 425 employees were made redundant in the UK last week. At the same time, Vestas continues to expand its new factories in the USA and China. As from Q2 2009, Vestas will be reporting on quarterly developments in its non-financial highlights in order to give prominence to the performance in achieving its environmental and safety targets.

Vestas:
With a 20 per cent market share, and 38,000 wind turbines installed, Vestas is the world's leading supplier of wind power solutions.

Wind power is competitive:
Wind power has now reached a level of technological maturity where it can compete on price with conventional sources of energy. And as a business investment, it’s as competitive as more conventional energy sources, such as oil and gas.

Wind power is free and plentiful:
In 2006, a report by Emerging Energy Research revealed that land-based wind power is only marginally more expensive than electricity from a new coal-fired power station – and its cost is equal to electricity from a new natural gas-fired plant. But that’s not taking into account the cost of CO2 emissions.

Improving technology to drive competitiveness:
Since we put up the first turbine in 1976, we have improved output 100 times over. Our aim is to bring down the cost of wind-generated electricity even further. Vestas is already the world leader in turbine technology and we have more than 20,000 people working to constantly improve our turbines even more. Take the V90-3.0 MW turbine. Every aspect has been rethought to reduce the cost per kWh. It’s lighter, making it cheaper to produce, transport and install. And it takes only three hours for a V90-3.0 MW to supply the average European family with electricity for an entire year.

Vestas R&D Technology is investing heavily in new technologies all over the world. Besides the largest R&D center placed in Aarhus (Denmark) we have opened or plan to open R&D centers in Singapore, Chennai (India) and Houston (US).

Still not convinced? There are four other reasons why wind is modern energy:

Wind power is predictable:
The price of oil, natural gas and other materials fluctuates. The price of wind is predictable – it’s free in every currency. This creates a strong business case for people and governments looking to invest in energy.

Meeting the world’s energy demands:
Wind turbines do not run at full capacity 365 days a year. But neither do conventional energy plants. In countries like Denmark, wind already meets one-fifth of the population’s total energy needs – and Denmark has achieved this using less than 20 percent of its actual wind resources. On very windy days, Denmark gets all of its electricity from the country’s 5,000 wind turbines.

Making turbines even more reliable:
Vestas have been harnessing the power of the wind for more than 30 years. Our turbines are already the most efficient on the market. And we’re working to make them even more efficient. In 2008, we opened the largest R&D centre in the wind power industry, housing more then 500 engineers. Our turbines are now 100 times more efficient than they were 25 years ago. As a result, the 38,000 Vestas turbines around the world produce enough energy to power every household in a country the size of Spain.

Wind power is independent:
Wind knows no limits and doesn’t recognise national boundaries. It’s an unlimited source of energy indigenous to every country in the world. Wind creates local jobs – and it has the power to free countries from energy dependence.

Energy independence and local jobs:
This is important for both business and political decision-makers. Energy is becoming an increasingly strategic and political issue for governments around the world. Many countries need to import power to fuel their economies and homes – and many governments want to increase their energy independence.

As well as freeing a country from energy imports, energy independence benefits economies by boosting local employment levels. And so does Vestas. We have already opened two new factories in the US and plan to open an R&D centre in Houston in 2010.

Harnessing the power of the wind efficiently:
The wind is everywhere. There is an unlimited supply – and it’s free. But it doesn’t turn into energy all by itself. The key is using technologically advanced turbines to harness the wind’s power effectively and efficiently. In just three hours, a Vestas V90-3.0 MW turbine can produce enough electricity to supply an average European household with electricity for a whole year. Our goal is to bring the benefits of this technology to people around the world.

Wind energy is fast:
When we say wind is ‘fast’, we don’t mean that wind turbines turn quickly. We mean that wind power plants can start producing energy very quickly. In fact, you can get a Vestas wind power plant up and running in a year – much faster than conventional energy plants – and this means a quick return on investment. Take the V90-3.0 MW. Thanks to modern materials and design, it’s lighter than ever before, making it easier to transport and faster to install. And it’s efficient enough to pay for itself in energy more than 35 times during its lifetime.

Making modern energy an attractive investment:
Together the 38,000 Vestas wind turbines around the globe already generate more than 60 million MWh a year. We predict that wind will cover at least 10 percent of the world’s electricity consumption by 2020. This will require more investment in wind power around the world, but we know it can happen.

Wind power is clean:
Wind is clean. It doesn’t produce CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. And it doesn’t use up our already scarce drinking water. It just produces energy.

The question is not if CO2 emissions should be reduced, but how. Fossil fuels like oil and gas produce CO2, while other technologies leave behind hazardous waste for future generations. Coal and nuclear power plants require large amounts of clean water – already a diminishing resource.

Energy efficiency for the entire life cycle:
Wind power is clean. A Vestas V90-3.0 MW wind turbine produces the same amount of electricity as 13,000 barrels of oil each year – without the emissions. And each year the 38,000 Vestas wind turbines around the world save the planet from more than 40 million tonnes of CO2 compared to oil.

But clean energy is about more than that. You also need to consider energy consumption throughout a power plant’s entire life cycle, from construction to dismantling. Even with the environmental impact of raw materials, manufacturing, transport, service and disposal, a V90-3.0 MW onshore turbine is carbon neutral after only 6.6 months of energy production. And 80 percent of each turbine we make is recyclable.

Leading the world in sustainable energy:
Vestas lead the world when it comes to turning wind power into clean, sustainable electricity. But we want to do more. So by 2020, we’ll use clean electricity for more than 90 percent of our internal energy consumption.

Results (country by country-delivered Vestas turbines as of 31 December 2008):
Country-Number-MW:
- Argentina-19-11,80 MW
- Australia-557-1069,75 MW
- Austria-221-380,56 MW
- Belgium- 24- 42,77 MW
- Brazil- 49- 79,43 MW
- Bulgaria -5,11- 9,20 MW
- Canada- 822,18 -1132,00 MW
- Cape Verde- 9- 2,55 MW
- Caribbean Islands -2- 0,20 MW
- Chile -14- 20,13 MW
- China- 1523,8- 1522,50 MW
- Costa Rica -71- 50,55 MW
- Croatia -21- 47,95 MW
- Cuba -4 -3,80 MW
- Czech Republic -26- 28,47 MW
- Denmark -4880- 2430,86 MW
- Egypt -124- 79,07 MW
- Finland -38- 18,45 MW
- France - incl. New Caledonia- 427- 740,45 MW
- Germany- 5595- 6841,58 MW
- Greece -532- 612,17 MW
- Hungary -26- 59,60 MW
- India -4025 -2095,59 MW
- Iran- 37- 16,38 MW
- Israel -3 -0,46 MW
- Italy -1840,22- 1817,87 MW
- Jamaica -24- 20,93 MW
- Japan- 379- 509,98 MW
- Jordan -5- 1,13 MW
- Latvia -1- 0,85 MW
- Lithuania -6- 18,00 MW
- Luxemburg -13- 9,40 MW
- Malaysia -1- 0,15 MW
- Mauritius -1- 0,10 MW
- Mexico -5- 1,13 MW
- Morocco -84- 50,40 MW
- Netherlands -1253,35- 1478,35 MW
- New Zealand -219 -309,96 MW
- North Korea -2- 0,18 MW
- Norway -27 -15,88 MW
- Peru -1 -0,25 MW
- Philippines -20- 33,00 MW
- Poland -103 -190,83 MW
- Portugal -311- 534,50 MW
- Republic of Ireland -460- 393,65 MW
- Romania -1- 0,66 MW
- Russia -3- 1,10 MW
- Slovakia -4- 2,64 MW
- South Africa -2- 2,41 MW
- South Korea -104- 166,49 MW
- Spain -2232,4- 2646,46 MW
- Sri Lanka -5- 3,00 MW
- Sweden -756- 615,86 MW
- Switzerland -9- 8,56 MW
- Taiwan -50- 86,10 MW
- Thailand -1- 0,15 MW
- Turkey -70- 168,91 MW
- United Arab Emirates -1- 0,85 MW
- United Kingdom -895,22- 1082,47 MW
- Uruguay -5- 10,00 MW
- USA -10144,03- 6273,41 MW

Total -38,093.13-33,751.81 MW

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net