This image shows Vestas wind turbines in use at a facility in Russia.
Valery Matytsin | TASS | Getty Images
Vestas announced plans for a 15 megawatt (MW) offshore wind turbine on Wednesday, with the Danish company hoping to install a prototype next year before increasing production in 2024.
According to the Aarhus-based company, the giant V236-15.0 MW turbine will be able to generate around 80 gigawatt hours per year.
That, he says, would be enough to supply approximately 20,000 European households, saving more than 38,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the process.
Vestas is the last company to proceed with the development of a sizeable offshore wind turbine. GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X can be configured for 12, 13 or 14 MW, while Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy is working on a 14 MW turbine that can also be increased to 15 MW if necessary.
As technology has developed, the size of wind turbines has increased. In a recent report, the industry body WindEurope said the average nominal capacity of turbines installed in Europe last year was 8.2 MW, an increase of 5% in 2019. Capacity refers to the maximum amount that a turbine can produce, not necessarily what it is currently generating.
Wednesday also saw Vestas release its annual report for 2020. The company said its profit for the year was 771 million euros ($ 934 million), slightly better than the 700 million euros released in 2019. Vestas’ revenue in 2020 reached 14.8 billion euros, an increase of 22% over 2019.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday, CEO Henrik Andersen said he was satisfied with the company’s ability to operate despite what he described as “Covid-19 challenging conditions”.
The European offshore wind sector attracted more than 26 billion euros in investment last year, a record amount, according to WindEurope.
In an announcement on Monday, the Brussels-based organization said the money raised would finance a total of 7.1 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, with projects set to be developed and built in the coming years.