Perfect and precise combination of factors led Vestas to invest in Porto

Porto means a lot to Vestas. Out of 99 cities Vestas, a multinational wind company, chose Porto to establish its new engineering centre. This investment in the northern region of Portugal places the country as a research and development hub, equally to Norway, UK, Germany, India and Denmark. The latter hosts Vestas's global headquarters.

This investment from Vestas in Porto will create 80 highly-skilled jobs by the end of 2017 and 300 more when Vestas starts full operation, by 2020.

Speaking at the opening of their offices in Porto at the Science and Technology Park (UPTEC), Vestas officials said Porto had been selected due to a perfect combination of factors, including access to world-class Electrical, Mechanical and software Engineering talents, the proximity of high standard research institutions and investigation poles, the enabling business environment, and local support.

For Rui Moreira, Mayor of Porto, the fact that Vestas has chosen Porto is "a victory for Portugal" and "demonstrates the growing potential" of the northern region of Portugal. From the standpoint of investment, "it is now common that every day is an important day in the city of Porto".

The Mayor added that "we have a modern, comfortable, innovative, interesting and especially, a very safe city and, most of all, we have knowledge". This enabling business environment leads to major corporations settling in Porto, namely Critical Software, Euronext and Natixis Bank, just to name a few". 

"The city is attracting international investors, which makes 2017 a particularly relevant year as added value activities have brought about a structural change in the specialisation pattern, creating jobs and re-energising economic conversion", Rui Moreira affirmed.

The Mayor further said "that we are delighted to confirm the relevance of such an investment as Vestas's in Porto, not only because of the number of jobs created but also because Portugal is strongly committed to betting on renewable energy, namely wind energy production".

As Secretary of State Mr Jorge Seguro Sanches, who attended the opening at UPTEC said: "The city of Porto has always demonstrated that it is capable of rising to challenges". Also, Jorge Magalhães, Vestas Portugal Vice-President, is assertive when stating that "we have no doubts whatsoever that this will be one of the best teams in the world in the business of Wind farm product development".

With this investment Vestas wants to assert its leadership in the world market and "with a view to reducing the cost of energy faster than any other wind power business", declared executive vice president and chief technology officer Anders Vedel.

Several locations in the Porto region are being assessed in order to establish the site of the future engineering centre, which will work as an independent platform in the context of Vestas business environment. This investment is valued at 10 million euros.