Rocky Mountains to See Almost $7 Billion in Projects Kick Off in Fourth-Quarter 2014

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Industrial Info is tracking $6.67 billion worth of active and unconfirmed industrial projects that are planned to kick off in the U.S. Rocky Mountains region in the fourth quarter of 2014. A substantial chunk is related to the clean/renewable energy fields like the domestic solar power industry, where photovoltaic installations grew more than 41% in 2013, and developing areas such as coal liquefaction.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing active projects scheduled to kick off in the fourth quarter of 2014 in the Rocky Mountains region by industry.

The Rocky Mountains region includes Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

The Industrial Manufacturing Industry leads the pack with $2.6 billion in investments, although all but a fraction of that amount is related to the planned start of construction on the first phase of the Tesla Motors project. Tesla Motors Incorporated's (NASDAQ:TSLA) (Palo Alto, California) construction of a lithium-ion battery plant in McCarran, Nevada. If the project is pursued, it will be part of a broader, $5 billion, 10 million-square-foot lithium-ion battery plant expansion to supply batteries to Tesla's assembly plant in Fremont, California.

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The largest confirmed project slated to kick off in the fourth quarter is in the Alternative Fuels Industry: DKRW Energy LLC's (Houston, Texas) $1.1 billion construction of a coal liquefaction plant in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The project involves building a facility that will produce 11,600 barrels per day (BBL/d) of diesel, naphtha and isobutane, and 300 million standard cubic feet per day of synthetic gas. The capacity eventually will be expandable to 40,000 BBL/d. SINOPEC Engineering (Beijing, China) is serving as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

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The Metals & Minerals Industry also is hosting one of the largest projects: Allied Nevada Gold Corporation's (TSX:ANV) (Reno, Nevada) $730 million, first-phase expansion of its gold mine and mill in Winnemucca, Nevada. The project involves expanding the open pit mine and the heap leach pads to process gold and silver ores. The company also plans to build a flotation/cyanide mill.

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Utah is preparing for the Power Industry's biggest project to kick off in the Rocky Mountains in the fourth quarter: Scatec AS' (Oslo, Norway) $500 million, two-phase construction of a solar power park in Cedar City, Utah. When complete in the second quarter of 2016, the project will have a total capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) and utilize thin-film solar arrays. The Power Industry has the largest number of confirmed projects set to begin construction in the region during the quarter, although they are slightly below the Alternative Fuels projects in TIV.

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Almost 80% of the region's TIV--about $5.3 billion--is related to 24 projects that are now in the planning stages, where plenty of factors could increase, decrease or eliminate the expected spending. The region also has 23 projects worth about $1.26 billion in the engineering stages, while 28 projects worth about $90 million already have kicked off the first stage of construction and will kick off the second in the fourth quarter.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.