Reported by Ann Rascalli

WINDSOR - The Vestas plant in Windsor looks like it will once again be manufacturing turbine blades soon, thanks to the company’s first U.S. turbine order since November, 2008. Vestas announced that 33 wind turbines are to be built at the Granite Reliable Power Windpark in New Hampshire.

The 99-MW project is majority-owned by Noble Environmental Power.  The turbines will be delivered in the first half of 2011, with project commissioning expected in the second half of 2011. The Granite Reliable Power Windpark  is the second — and largest — commercial-scale wind power plant in the state of New Hampshire.

The Windsor plant has been essentially idle since December when it halted production to enable retraining of employees on new manufacturing technology. That production stoppage is expected to run through this month.

While the order for the new turbines is good news for Vestas, a company executive said production of the blades will not commence until the physical site of the windpark has been properly prepared.

“With any new turbine site, they’ve got to do a lot of scoping and permitting, and they’ve got to get the foundation and prepare the site,” said Kevin Cory, director of people and culture of the Windsor manufacturing plant for Vestas. “When they get to where they’re ready, we actually trigger manufacturing and shipping. Of course everyone will try to do that as quickly as they think is feasible.”