Industrial machinery manufactures are led by the makers of computer storage devices and peripheral equipment. Other large employers in the state are firms engaged in making ordnance, components of guided missiles and space vehicles, and semiconductors. The Denver metropolitan area is the state's leading manufacturing center, specializing in food processing and in the manufacture of scientific equipment and electronic and transportation components. Industrial activity has developed in a number of other communities located in the Front Range area. In the university city of Boulder, printing and publishing, instrument manufacture, and research and development activities predominate.
Heavy industry is still important in Pueblo.
Colorado Springs has a wide variety of high-technology industries. Food-processing facilities can be found in many of the communities in the state. Most of the sugar refineries in Colorado are located in communities near the state's chief sugar beet-growing areas in the South Platte Valley near Greeley. E. Electricity Colorado produces 94 percent of its electricity in coal-powered thermal plants. Hydroelectric power accounts for 6 percent of the state's electricity generation.