Orders for wind turbines for Vestas have ramped up worldwide, but projects in the United States are still relatively flat.
But officials at Vestas and GE, both turbine makers that supply wind farms throughout the country, say the local market is strong this year because of the extension of the federal Wind Production Tax Credit, even if it's not seen on paper.In the first six months of the year, the Denmark-based Vestas, for example, has secured orders to build 686 wind turbines of various sizes for projects in Australia, the Philippines, Sweden, South Africa, Croatia, Uruguay, Italy, Canada, Romania, Ukraine, Belgium, Mexico and Chile. A second South African project was just announced last week.
So far, the projects total 2 gigawatts of power, more than double the amount Vestas had in 2012 at the same time. Vestas has a strong presence in Colorado, as it has two blade plants and one nacelle manufacturing plant in Weld County and a tower manufacturing plant in Pueblo.
...The only United States orders so far for Vestas have been two service contracts in Wisconsin and Iowa on 509 megawatts of turbine power.
Last year, Vestas' U.S. orders had slowed to 6.7 percent of the company's total orders with the impending expiration of the PTC. ....Vestas is bidding on four projects in Colorado at present: two projects for Xcel, a 100-MW project and a 548 MW project still under review by the Public Utilities Commission; a 100 MW project for Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association; a 30 MW project for Platte River Power Authority in northern Colorado and a 30 MW project for Black Hills Energy, a Western states cooperative.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, several wind projects also are on the horizon for Iowa, Michigan and Oklahoma.
And Recharge, an online magazine, reported last week Vestas' wind market is finally gaining some steam worldwide as customers find renewed confidence in company's financial health. Analysts pointed out in the Recharge piece that Vestas' second quarter orders were the strongest quarterly figure since 2011.
....The Brighton blade manufacturing plant -- the company's flagship operation building the V112, 55-meter turbine blades -- now also builds the V117 turbine, the company's longest blade at 57.5 meters. That capability has kept the plant busy as workers assemble blades and nacelles for the recently announced Blackspring Ridge project in Alberta -- the largest wind farm in western Canada with 166 turbines, as well as a 42-turbine order from Uruguay announced in January and a 47-turbine project announced in May, bound for Mexico.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/...ll-flat-lo_n_3557752.html
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