Vestas CEO: U.S. wind market to take 80% dive

Enlarge Image

Cathy Cheney | Portland Business Journal

Vestas CEO said over the weekend that he sees the U.S. wind market shrinking by 80 percent next year. 

The head of Denmark-based Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, said the U.S. market for wind turbines is expected to fall by 80 percent in 2013 after the federal Production Tax Credit expires.

Reuters reports that CEO Ditlev Engel said the tax credit, which is critical for financing wind projects in the U.S., is unlikely to get extended during an election year, and has led to a rush of activity in the U.S. this year ahead of its expiration.

He provided no further strategy for how the company would handle such a decline other than the plans announced in January to cut another 1,600 U.S. jobs — mostly in its Colorado manufacturing plants — if the tax credit expires.

Vestas employs around 400 in Portland, Its North American sales and service headquarters. It recently moved into its new $66 million headquarters building inside a renovated Meier & Frank warehouse.

Oregon lawmakers have gotten behind a number of efforts to extend the Production Tax Credit but the Reuters report states that industry watchers aren't expecting action on the tax this year.