Vestas is warming up for an expected boom in the US wind market. The Danish wind turbine manufacturer will invest USD 40m in its two factories in Brighton and Windsor in the state of Colorado, where up to 1,000 more employees will be hired over the next 18 months, according to the Denver Business Journal.

The expansion at the two factories is partly due to the fact that Vestas will start production of V163-4.5 MW turbines in Colorado for the North American market, where the Inflation Reduction Act, IRA, which was passed last summer, will support the green transition with hundreds of billions of dollars in direct funds and tax rebates in the coming years.

”This direct investment in our onshore manufacturing operations demonstrates our commitment to deploy V163-4.5 MW turbines across North America to support the transition to clean energy,” says Laura Beane, president of Vestas North America, in a press release.

The Windsor blade factory will already begin hiring this year, while the nacelle production in Brighton will need more people by 2024.

Back in 2021, Vestas downsized in Colorado, where hundreds of employees were laid off and the company sold its Pueblo factory.

The US Congressional Budget Office originally estimated that the Inflation Reduction Act would cost the US government USD 391bn, but Goldman Sachs has since estimated that the amount could exceed USD 1,000bn.