Friday, March 29, 2024

Vestas launches V236-15.0 MW offshore turbine with world’s largest swept area

Vestas, a Danish wind turbine company, strikes back in the offshore wind turbine market battle with the launch of a giant V236-15.0 MW turbine. The giant offshore turbine, with a capacity of 15 megawatts, is sufficient to supply electricity to 20,000 European households. It should allow the comapny to catch up in offshore wind power over its rivals, the Spanish-German wind engineering company Siemens Gamesa and the American GE Renewable Energy.

The new technology establishes a strong foundation for Vestas’ offshore leadership journey by raising the industry benchmark for performance and continued cost reduction in offshore technology, making Vestas highly competitive in offshore tenders as early as 2021.

The V236-15.0 MW is built on proven, world-class technology and engineered for efficiency in offshore environments around the world. With the industry’s largest swept area exceeding 43,000 m2 and a capacity factor of over 60% from the 115.5m blades, V236-15.0 MW delivers industry-leading performance while reducing the number of turbines at the park level. It is expected to deliver around 80 GWh/year, enough to power around 20,000 European households. Besides, the offshore turbine can save more than 38,000 tonnes of CO2, which is the equivalent to removing 25,000 passenger cars from the road every year.

The V236-15.0 MW harnesses Vestas’ world-class service and safety record and comes with a design lifetime of 25 years or more, depending on site conditions. It offers 65% higher annual energy production than Vestas’ current V174-9.5 MW offshore turbine, and for a 900 MW wind park, it boosts production by 5% with 34 fewer turbines.

With the V236-15.0 MW, we raise the bar in terms of technological innovation and industrialization in the wind energy industry, in favor of building scale,” says Anders Nielsen, Vestas Chief Technology Officer. “By leveraging Vestas’ extensive proven technology, the new platform combines innovation with certainty to offer industry-leading performance while reaping the benefits of building on the supply chain of our entire product portfolio. The new offshore platform forms a solid foundation for future products and upgrades“.

The first prototype of the turbine is expected to be installed in 2022 in the North Sea, while series production is expected to start in 2024.