Vestas tower plant gets tax credit in U.S.

"The Recovery Act is giving a much-needed boost to Colorado companies that are creating jobs and helping to drive the wind energy," Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter said in a prepared statement. "These tax credits will help our companies grow and keep Colorado on the road to economic recovery."

Nationwide, 183 companies received tax credits from stimulus funds totalling $2.3 billion. The companies claim the funds will enable them to create more than 17,000 jobs, President Barack Obama said.

The aim of the grants is to create jobs within clean-energy industries, like wind power. Among Colorado companies that were awarded tax credits under the plan, Pueblo’s Vestas operation was the second largest, behind only the Vestas Blades America Inc. plant in Brighton, which received $30.2 million. The Pueblo plant will focus on manufacturing tubular wind towers to support wind turbines, while the Brighton plant’s primary mission is to build blades for the wind turbines.

Together, the Vestas plants account for 69 percent of the tax credits awarded to Colorado companies under the program.

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