Vestas, the market leader in onshore wind, improved its chances of becoming the leader in offshore wind too with the full acquisition recently of its joint venture with MHI. It has now taken the next step – launching its own flagship WTG, the 15 MW V236-15.0 MW unit.
The company believes that the new technology will establish a strong foundation for its offshore leadership journey by elevating the industry benchmark for performance and continued cost reduction in offshore technology, making it highly competitive in offshore tenders in 2021.
Henrik Andersen, Vestas president and CEO, commented “Introducing our new offshore platform is a huge achievement for everyone at Vestas, as it marks a big leap forward in a very important journey. As a global renewables leader, every decision Vestas takes today must be in service of building scale for renewables in the future – only by doing this can we ensure a more sustainable future energy system. Offshore wind will play an integral role in the growth of wind energy and the V236-15.0 MW will be a driver in this development by lowering levelised cost of energy thus making our customers more competitive in offshore tenders going forward”.
The V236-15.0 MW harnesses the ‘optimum design synergies’ from existing turbine platforms, such as the 9 MW and EnVentus platforms, and expanding the industrialisation of turbine design through a modular approach to scale components. Anders Nielsen, Vestas chief technology officer, said “With the V236-15.0 MW, we raise the bar in terms of technological innovation and industrialisation in the wind energy industry, in favour of building scale”.
The new WTG has largest swept area, exceeding 43 000 sq m, of any currently available turbine raises wind energy production to around 80 GWh/year, enough to save more than 38 000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. It combines the wind industry’s largest rotor with the highest nominal rating, which will reduce the number of turbines at park level, strengthening the project business case. It offers a 65 % higher annual energy production than the V174-9.5 MW, and for a 900 MW wind park it boosts production by 5% with 34 fewer turbines. It is said to offer excellent part-load production, resulting in a more stable energy production, and a capacity factor over 60 % depending on site-specific conditions.
The first V236-15.0 MW prototype is expected to be installed in 2022, while serial production is scheduled for 2024.
Linkedin
