Wind OEM Vestas passed the 15GW milestone for the first time and guaranteed another record annual intake in 2019.
The Danish onshore wind giant passed that mark after a 132MW deal in Poland announced on Thursday, before adding a 224MW order from an unidentified American project on Friday.
Orders secured so far in the fourth quarter – notably from the US and Scandinavia – mean Vestas is already guaranteed to beat the previous record 14.2GW it notched up in 2018, with several weeks of the calendar year still to run and smaller unannounced orders to be added later.
Vestas in its third-quarter results in November said it was seeing “unprecedented” activity levels as it executed its bulging order book – but like other turbine OEMs reported pressure on profitability from rising costs and factors such as trade tariffs.
The Danish group is among a small group of OEMs tipped to emerge triumphant from the wind equipment sector’s unfolding consolidation process.
As well as its strong turbine orders and wide geographic reach, Vestas is also underpinned by a service business that grew by 8% in the third quarter, a performance described as “stellar” by recently-installed CEO Henrik Andersen.
