Renewable Businesses Bring The Green To Portland

Oregon's bid to cash in on its green appeal has given Portland's weakening commercial-real-estate market an early holiday gift.

Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems AS said this month that it is planning to build a new North American headquarters in the city. Negotiations still are under way and the site isn't set, but the project is likely to be more than 500,000 square feet and be valued at about $250 million.

Vestas Americas, which has been in the city since 2002, has roughly 300 employees in about six leased office locations totaling about 100,000 square feet in the Portland area, says Roby Roberts, a spokesman for Vestas, one of the world's largest wind-turbine suppliers. Vestas, despite the credit-starved times, hopes to start construction next year.
Read the full story here.

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Comments

[leevntheus]

Dingbats...the company is locating facilities here for design sales and manufacturing - not installing them in our forests - duh. Although their are wind farms built now and in the works for high plains areas of Oregon (not a tree or mountain in sight) and along some extreme wind channels along the Columbia river (still no trees) windmills simply do not perform adequately in rugged terrain.

Why are they locating to Portland? Highly educated ,progressive, environmentally sound labor force. Remember, Oregon INVENTED green. (Bottle Bill, Anti Sprawl Land Use Reform). We even have universities that produce bachelor's of science and engineering in Renewable Energy Systems.

As the rest of the country slides into the crapper, Oregon will shine brighter and brighter as the cleanest, greenest, most progressive and environmentally robust state in the country. Our econmy here will flourish just from the residual effects of that growing reputation (ie the supply/demand curve of everyone wanting to live here)

[KarlaElisa]

There are plenty of places in Oregon that see serious wind. I also am not favoring clear cutting to make this possible but we have a great deal of land thats probably open and could be used.

With the proper planning this is a good thing.

[sheila]

subtext - Oregon home enjoys burst of heat by burning the furniture.

every acre that's destroyed by Big Wind and Big Solar is gone forever, so this is just more of the same short-term exploitative baloney that got us into this unsustainable mess in the first place. if they were focused on microwind and PV only on previously developed land, especially point of use, and secondarily on superfund and brownfields with existing transmission, i wouldnt mind, but destroying perfectly functioning ecosystem should be illegal. it's certainly unnecessary.

[research]

Big Solar yes.

Big Wind NO!

Wind has a very small footprint.

[goatdaddy]

Where do you get the idea that they are clear-cutting to install wind farms? All the wind farms in Oregon are in the North-Central part of the state that is all grass/farmland allowing for dual usage: energy production and agriculture.

[leevntheus]

And as a student of Renewable Energy Engineering Systems @ a university here in Oregon, I've just gotta say there's not enough space on HuffPo to explain to you how uninformed you are. And OMG...now its BIG wind and BIG solar...JFC...this is what's wrong with FRINGE environmentalism...against anything and everything that might be BUSINESS. That fundemental philosophy is just crap and you need to get your mind out of your bong and into a textbook.

[BBackSoon]

Funny how they can afford to expand when Big Oil will tell you that Wind Power is spotty and is not yet cost effective.

[KillTheMessenger]

Wait, isn't oil "spotty"? At least my shop coat is full with these nasty oil spots.

:-)

[research]

Wind installed last few years is producing at a cost per KWH cheaper than nukes and coal.

Even with a 40% "non-spottiness".

2006: 10GW 2006 wind power 3B USD, 40 USD/MWH
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy07osti/41435.pdf

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200703/200703190005.html

My profile has links.

[research]

Do you understand that wind is at 4 cents per KWH?

What do you pay?

[BBackSoon]

Sorry I couldn't find my irony font.

[research]

Let's buy some stock in Vestas to help them build Tubines for the USA!

[KillTheMessenger]

Vestas... the little Danish company that could!

[ErnestineBass]

Gotta love the Danes. So much innovation from a country about half the size of Maine.