Denmark – Vestas has completed the installation of the V236-15.0 MW prototype turbine at Denmark’s Ăsterild National test center for large wind turbines in Western Jutland.
After producing its first kWh of power successfully, the prototype will now go through a rigorous testing and verification process to assure reliability before receiving full type certification and starting serial manufacturing.
The development and construction of the prototypes was done at several Vestas R&D and manufacturing facilities in Denmark. The 115.5m long prototype blades were made in Vestas’ offshore blade plant in Nakskov, while the blade moulds were created at Vestas’ blade facility in Lem. The offshore nacelle facility at the port of Odense, Lind, developed and put together the prototype nacelle. At the LORC test site in Denmark, the test schedule for the generator, converter, and grid system integration has already begun.
Moving the boundaries
The V236-15.0 MW offers industry-leading performance and pushes the limits of wind energy production to over 80 GWh/year, which is sufficient to power almost 20,000 European houses and eliminate more than 38,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
In order to improve the project’s business case, the V236-15.0 MW is engineered to provide good performance while lowering the number of turbines at park level. The V174-9.5 MW is outperformed by the internationally applicable offshore turbine in terms of annual energy production by 65 percent, and it requires 34 fewer turbines to provide the same amount of energy for a 900 MW wind park. Depending on site-specific conditions, it provides exceptional partial-load generation, resulting in more steady energy output, and a capacity factor of 60%.
Vestas will introduce the V236-15.0 MW turbine in February 2021, and up to this point, preferred supplier agreements have been made for a total of more than 8 GW in five different regions.