The Crown Prince of Denmark, Prince Frederik said that expansion of a country’s renewable sources of energy and struggling out if a recession are not separate issues. He said, “Denmark is economically competitive not in spite of these efforts, but because of them,” at a Brighton plant groundbreaking for Danish wind-turbine maker Vestas Wind System. “Opening a manufacturing plant, unfortunately, is not very common these days.”

The Price was accompanied by his wife Crown Princess Mary and Bill Ritter, the Governor of Colorado at the ceremony of two parts plants by Vestas. Vestas had already established a blade making plant 50 miles north of Denver at Windsor. It is also planning a factory that can support 400 employees in Pueblo to construct towers that can support the turbines. This would be the world’s largest factory of the kind.

Ritter spoke about the need for alternative energy and said the state of Colorado is now going to follow a “new energy economy” to create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adding, “It isn’t a slogan. It’s an idea.”

The Crown Prince said that during a similar economic meltdown in the 1970s Denmark had decided to look beyond fossil fuels and this brought in tremendous economic growth to the country as well as a decline in the emission of carbon dioxide gas by 13%.

Presently renewable energy give Denmark 28% of its electricity supply, he said.

The Crown Prince and Princess also visited Dana College in Blair, Nebraska to attend a ceremony for a new ethanol enzyme plant that is being constructed by Novozymes from Denmark.