Joined by Governor Bill Ritter, Danish Crown Prince Fredrik and his wife, Princess Mary, were in Brighton yesterday, shovels in hand, to break ground on Vestas Wind System’s planned wind-turbine plant.

It was the latest photo-op in Ritter’s plans to turn Colorado into a renewable energy mecca for the “new energy economy,” creating jobs while decreasing our dependence on oil, according to The Associated Press. “It isn’t a slogan. It’s an idea,” Ritter says.

Vestas already has a blade-making plant in Windsor and is planning a factory in Pueblo that would build the towers to support the turbines. By next year, Vestas will have spent $680 million in Colorado and employ 2,450 people, notes The Denver Post.

The Brighton City Council voted last night to erect a street sign on Weld County Road 6, renaming a portion of it Crown Prince Boulevard in honor of Prince Frederik, according to the Northern Colorado Business Report . Vestas is ranked 36 on a list of top 50 most innovative businesses in this month’s edition of Fast Company magazine.