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Vestas Shows Off Prototype Blade For Wind Turbine

BRIGHTON, Colo. (CBS4)- Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is showing off a new prototype blade. It's the longest blade ever made.

Vestas has a manufacturing plant in Brighton that builds the massive wind turbine blades. The new blades don't look too much different from the traditional blades they've been manufacturing but they are 16 feet longer. That makes them the longest blades ever produced in North America.

Vestas is putting a lot of faith into the blades. The global Danish company has been struggling since production and revenue has declined recently.

That's forced the company to layoff hundreds of employees including at their four factories in Colorado.

Vestas officials believe the new blades could help turn the company around.

"It's too early to tell whether that will mean more jobs. We need sales we need to sell our wind turbines. We have a lot of interest from our customers. There is a lot of demand out there on the streets even right here in Colorado there are some utilities who are interested in procuring more renewable energy and we want to win those deals and keep Coloradans employed at these factories," said Vestas spokesman Andrew Longteig.

Three prototype blades have been loaded up and will ship out to Denmark for testing which could take up to a year to complete.

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