Vestas Races To End Of 2018 With Record 12 Gigawatts

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Danish wind turbine manufacturing giant Vestas Wind Systems A\S had a lot to celebrate over Christmas as it announced seven orders over the Christmas period, and a flurry of eight announcements Friday, worth a total of 1,722 megawatts (MW) in total, likely bringing its total order book for 2018 over the 12 gigawatt (GW) mark, a new company record.

Vestas kicked off December with the announcement that it had received an order to supply 220 MW worth of wind turbines to a US wind project which pushed the company’s 2018 order book over the 10 GW mark. This is at least the third time Vestas has exceeded the 10 GW mark — having secured 10,494 MW in 2016 and 11,176 MW in 2017 — and the company has only continued its progress as the year draws to a close.

Based on numbers made publicly available by the company, Vestas therefore has taken in at least 12,198 MW worth of turbine orders for 2018.

Starting on the 17th of December and progressing through to the date of writing, Vestas announced six separate wind turbine orders and its largest repowering order to date — a 359 MW multi-brand repowering order from Phoenix Wind Repower for projects in Texas. Specifically, Vestas will replace the existing Clipper turbines with its own V110-2.2 MW turbines at the Trinity Hills, Sherbino Mesa II, and Silver Star wind projects. The three projects were simultaneously sold by former owner BP to a LA-based private equity firm.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Ares’ Infrastructure and Power strategy as they expand their wind portfolio, and move to deliver profitable returns for their customer through the long-term, sustainable, and reliable wind industry”, said Chris Brown, President of Vestas’ sales and service and division in the United States and Canada. “With the exponential advancements in wind technology over the last decade, the turbines of today barely resemble the turbines of yesterday. Through repowering these projects, we’ll unlock even more value through the lifetime performance of these projects.”

The six other wind turbine orders were spread all over the globe, with contracts awarded from projects in Germany, Brazil, Australia, the United States, and Russia.

Three of the smaller orders included a 33 MW order from German municipal utility enercity Erneuerbare GmbH for Klettwitz III B.A. 2.2 project located in Klettwitz in the Brandenburg region in eastern Germany; a 58 MW engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the Cherry Tree Wind Farm, located near Seymour in Victoria, Australia; and a 22 MW order of 60% Production Tax Credit-qualifying turbine components in the US for an undisclosed company and project.

Three more orders announced over the Christmas period were of a more substantial nature, including the 151 MW order from Casa dos Ventos, one of the largest wind project developers in Brazil, to supply its locally-made V150-4.2 MW to the  Folha Larga wind park in the Brazilian State of Bahia.

“As wind power becomes more important and Casa dos Ventos increases its investments in the sector, we are honored to count on Vestas’ support,” said Lucas Araripe, director of Casa dos Ventos. “We intend to begin construction in 2019 and have the wind park fully operational by 2020, ahead of its regulatory schedule.”

A day later, Vestas announced an order for 56 of its  V136-3.45 MW turbines (which will be optimized to an output of 3.6 MW) for an undisclosed wind project in the United States which, upon completion, will boast the tallest turbine towers in the United States, measuring in at 112 meters with a tip height of 180 meters.

“We’re pleased to expand our tall tower technology and 4 MW platform,” said Chris Brown, President of Vestas’ sales and service division in the United States and Canada. “The combination of taller towers and 4 MW technology is perfectly designed to extract the abundant resource at the site, and deliver low-cost, reliable energy to the community and customer.”

Finally, Vestas announced on December 21 another key milestone in its efforts to establish itself in the Russian wind industry, revealing that it had been awarded an order to supply the 198 MW Kamensko-Krasnosulinsky project from WEDF Second Wind Farm LLC, a joint venture between Rusnano and Fortum. Vestas will supply 56 of its V126-3.45 MW wind turbines delivered optimised to perform at 3.8 MW.

“The order from Fund (WEDF) became possible because of the joint localisation programme realised in Russia by Vestas and RUSNANO,” said Alisher Bakhadyrovich Kalanova, Head of the Investment Division of RES UK Rosnano LLC. “The established joint ventures will provide the necessary degree of localisation of wind turbine elements for the construction of wind farms in Russia.”

Mcarthur wind farm“This order marks another milestone for Vestas playing a key role, together with our local partners, in expanding the wind energy industry in the world’s fourth largest electricity market,” added Nils de Baar, President of Vestas Northern & Central Europe. “By delivering efficient wind energy solutions, local manufacturing and supply-chain expertise and market-leading cost of energy, we are able to create maximum value for our customer’s business case.”

Within hours of beginning to write this article, however, Vestas announced eight more confirmed orders dated December 28, including 122 MW and 40 MW orders in the United States, a 99 MW EPC order in Ukraine, as well as orders in Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Australia, for a total of

Of particular note is the 122 MW order, which is part of MidAmerican Energy’s mammoth 2 GW Wind XI project being built across Iowa, as well as an EPC order in Western Australia, the western-most state of the country, for 184 MW, bringing the company’s total orders in Australia in 2018 over the 1 GW mark.


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

Joshua S Hill has 4403 posts and counting. See all posts by Joshua S Hill