Large Scale Wind

The U.S. Department of Energy states that “Wind energy is the fastest growing type of energy generation in the United States and around the world. This growth can be attributed to a greatly reduced cost of production, customer demand for clean, diverse sources of electricity, and state and federal incentives to stimulate the markets also contributed to wind energy’s growth.

In Colorado, the popularity of wind energy is reflected by the success of Windsource®, Xcel Energy’s voluntary green-pricing program, which has one of the highest participation levels of any such utility program in the nation and is currently experiencing another period in which consumers are on waiting lists.

Colorado has vaulted into sixth place nationally in wind capacity, trailing only Texas, California, Iowa, Washington and Minnesota. Colorado’s strong showing was made possible by the installation in 2007 of 775 MW of new wind capacity (400 MW at Peetz Table in Logan County, 300 MW at Cedar Creek in Weld County, and 75 MW at Twin Buttes in Bent County).

Wind energy project construction employed over 600 people in Colorado in 2007. As the new Vestas wind blade manufacturing plant is completed in Windsor in early 2008, well over 700 people will be directly employed in Colorado by the wind industry alone.

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