Danish wind OEM Vestas has won a 228MW order for its V136-4.2MW turbines (in a 4.3MW optimized mode) from Berkshire Hathaway Energy unit PacifiCorp for its 250MW Ekola Flats wind project in the US state of Wyoming.
“We’re pleased PacifiCorp has again selected our 4MW platform for the Ekola Flats projects,” said Chris Brown, president of Vestas’ sales and service division in the US and Canada.
The order includes supply and commissioning of the turbines as well as a 12-year service contract. Turbine delivery is expected to start in the second quarter of next year, with commissioning scheduled for the third quarter.
While previously machines in the 2MW class were predominant in the US Mid-West wind belt, machines in the 4MW class are increasingly making inroads in the region.
At the same time, the repowering market is growing fast in the country, despite a phasing out of the production tax credit (PTC) that will only be available at a 40%-value for projects starting this year.
Ekola Flats is part of PacifiCorp’s Energy Vision 2020 initiative, a $3.1bn investment to expand wind power via repowering existing projects, adding 1.15GW of new wind resources by the end of 2020, and building a 140-mile transmission line segment in Wyoming to enable wind generation.
As part of Energy Vision 2020, Vestas and PacifiCorp earlier last week had already announced an order of 459MW of V136-4.2MW machines (also operating in a 4.3MW power optimised mode, for the TB Flats I and II projects.
The two companies previously have also partnered on repowering the Marengo and Marengo II wind projects in Washington, upgrading the site’s existing V80-1.8MW turbines with V100-2.0 MW turbines.
