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