Report: Colorado home to nearly 1 in 10 US wind-energy jobs

Colorado is home to nearly one in 10 U.S. wind-energy jobs, according to a new report from a renewable-energy advocacy group.

The wind-power industry has created from 6,000 to 7,000 jobs at more than 50 individual wind farms and manufacturing plants, according to figures from industry officials and companies that were compiled in the report issued by the Rocky Mountain chapter of Environmental Entrepreneurs, or E2. According to the group’s quarterly clean-energy jobs report, more than 2,500 permanent and temporary wind jobs have been announced in the state since September 2011.

The state’s largest player in the wind-energy sector is Danish wind-turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems A/S (OMX: VWS), which has factories in Windsor, Brighton and Pueblo. The company had about 2,000 employees in Colorado by the end of 2014 and planned to hire hundreds more in Windsor this spring.

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According to the report, the wind industry has led to nearly $5 billion in investments in Colorado’s economy; generates nearly $8 million in annual lease payments for farmers, ranchers, and other landowners; and has saved Coloradans nearly $20 million in fuel costs.

“Colorado is fertile ground for innovative, job-creating wind companies,” said Michael Rucker, president of Boulder-based Harvest Energy Services and a director of E2’s local chapter, in a media statement.

Rucker and state Rep. Jeni Arndt, D-Fort Collins, released the report, “Winds of Change,” at E2’s 15th-anniversary celebration on Tuesday night in Denver. The Rocky Mountain chapter of the nonprofit national public-policy advocacy organization was started in 2007 and has about 50 members in Colorado who represent diverse industries.