Vestas said the 15MW prototype wind turbine it is currently testing has set an industry world record for the most power output over 24 hours.
The V236-15.0 MW offshore turbine recently produced 363MWh of electricity in one day, the Danish group announced.
The turbine boasts 115.5-meter blades, each longer than a football pitch. Depending on conditions, each turbine can produce up to 80GWh of power a year. That is enough to power around 20,000 European households and displace more than 38,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The prototype produced its first power at the Østerild National test centre for large wind turbines in Denmark late last year. Since then, Vestas says it has been through an “extensive test and verification programme.”
Jesper Uth, senior director of the testing and validation team at Vestas, said: “Seven months into testing, we are excited to see the performance of the turbine at full power at continuously high wind.”
“The verification campaign will continue to achieve the type certification and further demonstrate what a high-quality machine can deliver over time”.
Turbine testing has been in the spotlight recently after Siemens Gamesa rocked the industry by admitting it has sold turbines that were insufficiently tested, leading to multibillion-dollar losses at its parent Siemens Energy. Vestas and GE are said to have been far less affected by such quality control issues.
Vestas will produce some blades for the V236 at a factory in Taranto, southern Italy, eyeing the emerging floating wind market in southern Europe. The V236 has an energy yield that is about two-thirds higher than that of the V174-9.5MW, one of its predecessor models.
