Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is to build the world's largest offshore turbines as the group looks to reduce costs and remain competitive in an increasingly packed marketplace.
Vestas 112-3.0 MW turbine. Credit: Vestas
Vestas 112-3.0 MW turbine. Credit: Vestas
The mammoth turbines will stand at 260m high, roughly the same as New York's Rockefeller Center, as Vestas is playing catch up with rivals like Siemens Gamesa and GE, both of which already produce turbines that are almost as big.
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"Every country and every continent is starting to do a lot of planning for offshore,” said Henrik Andersen, Vestas chief executive.
“The whole technology will help to reduce the levelised cost of electricity," he added, saying that the increased scale of offshore wind installations will bring down costs.
Larger wind turbines produce more power per turbine so overall construction costs are kept lower. The new turbine's blades are 115m long with a "sweep" - the area covered by one rotation, being equivalent to around six football pitches.
Industry watchers anticipate a surge in offshore wind installations in the coming years, particularly in North Sea countries.
Read more: Offshore wind to provide electricity to all UK homes by 2030
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he intends to make the country the "Saudi Arabia of wind".
Earlier this week, an auction for offshore wind development rights in England and Wales attracted record prices from well-established oil giants including Total and BP, as well as newcomers such as German utility EnBW.
These record prices have alarmed some in the industry, however. Last week, the new CEO of Danish offshore wind developer warned there was a risk that the "very high prices" in the UK auction would make the whole sector less competitive against other energy technologies.
“We think that’s a big shame because offshore has such huge potential in all of Europe and essentially across the world,” said Mads Nipper in an interview with the FT, following the announcement that Orsted was to move into the Polish offshore wind market through a joint venture with state-run energy firm PGE.
Read more: Denmark gives go-ahead to huge North Sea energy island
Denmark is also hotly tipped to become a wind powerhouse in the near future. The Scandinavian nation has announced the construction of two offshore wind islands, one in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Bornholm will have a planned capacity of 2 GW, and the other in the North Sea is set to be the world's largest offshore energy hub, covering 120,000 square metres with a 3 GW capacity, set to increase to 10 GW in the future.
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