Reported by Art Mass

Lured by tax credits and Colorado’s renewable-energy programs, RePower USA Corp is relocating its headquarters from Portland to Denver. Founded in 2001, the company sells and installs turbines manufactured by its parent firm, with rated outputs between 2 and 6.15 megawatts.

The subsidiary of German wind-turbine maker RePower Systems AG, is the second business to take advantage of a new job-creation program that gives relocating companies tax credits.The tax credit program became active this month and grants a 3.8 percent state income-tax credit for up to five years to companies that select Colorado over competitors and create at least 20 jobs. RePower will bring with it 25 jobs and is committed to more than tripling that number, according to Evan Dreyer, a spokesman for Ritter. He said the tax credit could be worth as much as $700,000.

Steve Dayney, CEO of REpower USA Corp, said, “Since 2007, we have managed our U.S. wind energy business from a Portland, OR office located near our initial projects in California, Oregon and Washington. Today we are seeing our business grow rapidly to other regions of the U.S.”

All administrative, sales and project management functions will take place in the new Denver headquarters, according to RePower USA.  Founded in 2001, the company sells and installs turbines manufactured by its parent firm, with rated outputs between 2 and 6.15 megawatts. RePower Systems AG is the third-largest wind-turbine producer in Germany and reported first quarter fiscal 2009  sales of $428 million, an increase of 30% from the same quarter last year.

RePower has installed 300 wind turbines in the United States with the capacity to generate 600 megawatts of electricity, Dreyer said.

“The company was also attracted to Colorado by the market potential here and the fact that the state is doing a lot with renewable energy.”