Danish wind turbine manufacturing giant Vestas Wind Systems A/S announced today that, with the installation of a V110-2.0 megawatt (MW) turbine at MidAmerican Energy’s Wind XI project in late 2018, the company has become the first to install 100 gigawatts (GW) of wind turbines.
Vestas Wind Systems has kept itself in the news over the past two months with consistent announcements — including news in early December that it had surpassed 10 GW worth of orders taken during 2018. This, then, and unsurprisingly, continued through the rest of the month and, earlier this week I reported that Vestas finished 2018 with orders taken worth close to 13 GW — well in excess of its previous records.
In fact, in December of 2018 alone, Vestas took in confirmed wind turbine orders of 2,859 GW.
Not willing to fade from the news, Vestas Wind Systems announced today that, with the installation in late 2018 of a V110-2.0 MW wind turbine at the multi-site 2 GW Wind XI project being built across Iowa by MidAmerican Energy, the company became the first to install 100 GW of wind turbines.
The first wind turbine Vestas installed was a V10-30 kilowatt (kW) turbine in 1979. Since then, the company has installed over 66,000 wind turbines in approximately 80 countries around the world on six continents. A long way from a 30 kW wind turbine, Vestas’ largest onshore wind turbine is the V150-4.2 MW turbine.
“We have pioneered wind energy across the globe for 40 years, and to install 100 GW together with our customers and partners is something we are extremely proud of as it underlines how far Vestas and wind energy have come,” Anders Runevad, Vestas President and CEO. “It’s also a pleasure to celebrate this milestone with a key customer like MidAmerican Energy. Reaching this milestone has required continuous innovation, strong commitment and great execution from all Vestas’ employees, and the 100 GW, therefore, represents a key part of the foundation that enables us to develop the sustainable energy solutions of the future.”
Vestas’ 100 GW of wind turbines have helped to remove 129 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere equaling CO2 emissions from:
- 141 billion pounds of burned coal
- 298 million barrels of oil
- 22.54 million US homes yearly electricity use
- 33 coal-fired power plants
- Carbon sequestered from 152 million acres of forest
“With 100 GW of installed wind turbines, Vestas has installed around 10% of all wind and solar capacity in the world,” explained Anders Riis, Director of Communications for Vestas, who spoke via email, “but as the next 1000 GW are expected to be installed by 2023, Vestas remains focused on executing our commitments and priorities in the short term. By doing so, we sustain and strengthen the foundation that enables us to develop the sustainable energy solutions our customers and stakeholders need in the future.”
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