Vestas Launches 15 MW Turbines; Sets Sight at Offshore Wind Leadership

Vestas the global leader in onshore wind has set its sights on taking a leading role in offshore wind with the launch of its 15 MW turbines

Vestas, the global leader in the onshore wind segment has now set its sights on taking a leading role in the offshore wind sector. This journey, the firm claims, was launched with the full acquisition of its former offshore joint venture MHI Vestas, and now the firm has taken the next step. The firm has introduced its latest V236-15.0 MW turbine.

The new technology, the firm believes, establishes 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 already in 2021.

Henrik Andersen, Vestas President and CEO, said “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 will continue this ongoing effort by harnessing 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.

With the world’s largest swept area exceeding 43,000 m2, the V236-15.0 MW delivers industry-leading performance and moves the boundaries of wind energy production to around 80 GWh/year, enough to power around 20,000 European households and save more than 38,000 tonnes of CO2, which is the equivalent to removing 25,000 passenger cars from the road every year.

Combining the wind industry’s largest rotor with the highest nominal rating, it is designed to deliver excellent performance while reducing the number of turbines at park level, strengthening the project business case. The globally applicable offshore turbine offers 65 percent higher annual energy production than the V174-9.5 MW, and for a 900 MW wind park, it boosts production by five percent with 34 fewer turbines. It offers excellent partial-load production, resulting in more stable energy production, and a capacity factor over 60 percent depending on site-specific conditions.

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. 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 Vestas V236-15 MW turbines prototype is expected to be installed in 2022, while serial production is scheduled for 2024.