Swedish energy giant Vattenfall announced that they successfully installed an 8.8 megawatts capacity offshore wind turbine from Vestas at its European testing center, European Offshore Wind Deployment Center (EOWDC).
This is the first of 11 turbines that has been planned for the project and is the first deployment of a model of its size for commercial use. Vattenfall will also be installing another 8.8 megawatts model from Vestas at the site where it will be tested. For these two turbines, the enhanced internal power modes increased capacity up from 8.4 megawatts on MHI vestas’ flagship V164 turbine platform.
According to Soren Lassen, a business analyst at MAKE consulting, the uprating trend is noteworthy, but the .4 megawatt increase is not revolutionary. He noted that MHI Vestas already has orders for a 9.5 megawatts version of their V164 platform turbine which will be launched in June. “The trend of uprating is symptomatic of the offshore wind market in Europe, as developers push to take advantage of the favorable wind resources,” Lassen said. “Turbine [manufacturers] will continue to boost the rating of their current offshore platforms into the early 2020s.”
Source: Inhabitat
Turbines, whether offshore and onshore, will continue to increase in size. The MHI Vestas turbines have a tip height of 191 meters and blades that are 80 meters long. If we look beyond 2020, MAKE projects that the UK market will lead offshore turbine capacity growth, with the average rating close to 12 megawatts by the end of 2024.
The entire facility has an installed capacity of 93.2 megawatts, and will produce 312 gigawatt-hours per year, according to Vattenfall. That is enough to power nearly 80,000 homes and meet 23 percent of Aberdeen’s total electricity demand. This will displace 134,128 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Vattenfall plans to excise fossil fuels from its portfolio within one generation.
“The EOWDC, through its innovative approach to cost reduction and pioneering technologies, leads the industry drive toward generating clean and competitive wind energy power — one that will reinforce Scotland’s global energy status,” said Gunnar Groebler of Vattenfall’s wind unit.
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