Danish wind turbine giant Vestas will consolidate its footprint in the US state of Colorado to reflect lower near-term demand, a move likely to result in about 300 jobs losses.

The company plans to lower its manufacturing capacity, reducing the headcount in three factories across the state by approximately 450 employees. Vestas expects to offer 150 of them new roles in other parts of the company.

"The wind energy industry in the USA has grown tremendously in recent years, which has increased our factories' capacity and expanded our service business," Vestas chief operating officer Tommy Rahbek Nielsen said.

"With a larger fleet under service and lower demand in the near-term, we are therefore consolidating our setup in Colorado to ensure we can cater for our service business’ needs, and are structured in the right way to ramp up efficiently once wind turbine demand requires us to."

Vestas last year accounted for 5.8GW of US wind turbine installations, coming in second after domestic champion GE, which saw 8.8GW of its turbines erected. For land-based wind projects in construction and in advanced development at the end of 2021, GE had 8.1GW (31% market share), and Vestas 5.3GW (21%).

Specifically, Vestas said it will concentrate blades production at its Windsor blades factory and re-purpose its Brighton blades site into a North American headquarters for its global tooling business, consolidating from six dispersed smaller locations.

That means ending blades production at the Brighton blades plant, and laying off about 280 people. Vestas will also reduce the headcount at its Pueblo towers unit and Brighton nacelles factories by some 170 employees.

The company stressed by keeping four sites in Colorado, Vestas is ensuring a continued strong foundation in the US that will enable future adjustments and an efficient scale-up once demand increases again.

Vestas after the Colorado layoffs will still employ more than 29,000 people world-wide, 4,500 of them in the US.

The OEM in August last year had announced it will stop producing blades for its V136 machine due to reduced demand for that model.

Wind

Vestas to cut hundreds of US jobs on lower near-term wind turbine demand