Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine supplier, has launched two new versions of its 2MW onshore turbine platform, the V116 and V120, aimed at lower-wind markets in North America and India respectively.
The new turbines build on the highly successful V110-2.0MW, using longer 57- and 59-metre rotor blades to capture more energy from the wind and improve projects’ capacity factor – and ultimately their levelised cost of energy (LCOE).
The V116 – which Vestas describes as a “perfect match for North American wind conditions”, albeit “globally applicable” – will begin shipping in Q1 2018. The V116 is designed for low- and medium-wind conditions (IEC IIB), its blades sweeping an area 11% larger than the V110 while boosting annual energy production up to 4%.
Meanwhile, the V120 expands the 2MW platform into ultra-low wind markets (IIIB/S), boosting annual energy production in such conditions up to 7% compared to the V110. The V120 will be available for delivery from Q3 2018.
The new models represent the fifth major upgrade Vestas has made to its 2MW platform since it was launched in 2000 with the V80, and the Danish OEM will soon be delivering 2MW machines designed for everything from ultra-low through high-wind conditions.
Over the past 16 years, Vestas’ 2MW platform has been installed in 45 countries.
CONTINUITY
Vestas’ factories in Colorado will shift over to making the new models, eventually phasing down production of the V110. The new variants will retain the V110’s basic nacelle’s design and dimensions to help hold logistics costs down.
The technological “continuity” between the V116/120 and their 2MW predecessors is a key selling point for customers – not to mention their financiers and insurers, Jeffrey Fuchs, vice president of marketing and strategy, tells Recharge. “It gives them confidence that right out of the box this machine is proven and financeable.”
Vestas Americas president Chris Brown says that while the new turbines will have longer blades than the V110, their true value will come in helping lower LCOE in the competitive US power market, where the difference of $1/MWh can make or break some projects.
“To me, maybe [some turbine suppliers] have focused on the wrong things,” Brown tells Recharge. “Bigger is not necessarily better.”
“Whether rotor, or tower, or nameplate capacity, for us it’s about the cost of energy – that’s the ultimate measure of whether a project is competitive,” he says.
“If a competitor announces a blade that’s a foot or two longer – so what? Who cares, if it’s not generating a lower cost of energy?”
“On that cost of energy drive, we’ll beat anybody,” Brown says.
Vestas notched a string of high-profile wins in the US last year, on its way to knocking rival General Electric off the top spot for new US turbine capacity installed for the first time, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Vestas also reclaimed the top spot in the annual global ranking of wind turbine suppliers, above GE and China’s Goldwind, Bloomberg New Energy Finance says.
Among Vestas’ big US wins last year was its landmark deal with Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy for its multi-site Wind XI development in Iowa, worth up to 2GW for Vestas.
2MW STILL KING IN THE US
Vestas sold twice as many 3MW turbines globally as 2MW machines last year, but in the US – by far its single largest market – the 2MW platform reigns supreme. There are two reasons for that, Fuchs explains.
The first is the height restriction imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The second is the fact that the US is generally a “megawatt-constrained” wind market, meaning the limiting factor for many projects is the amount of capacity that can be absorbed at the interconnection point.
Whether rotor, or tower, or nameplate capacity, for us it’s about the cost of energy
In comparison, more densely populated countries like Germany tend to be “pad-constrained”, meaning space – and, ultimately, the number of turbines – is more often the limiting factor.
In a megawatt-constrained market, one of the most important things a turbine supplier can do for its customers is boost projects’ capacity factor. “The V116 and V120 will have world-leading capacity factors,” Fuchs says.
While the V116 and V120 will make a good fit in almost any part of the North American market, they could be especially helpful in creating opportunities for developers around the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest, Fuchs says.
These areas, where substantial amounts of coal-fired capacity will come offline over the coming decade, have slightly lower wind speeds than the Great Plains that run through northern Texas and Oklahoma, where much of the US market’s activity has been focused in recent years.
“These machines are a really good fit for that region,” he says. “Having a bigger rotor and higher capacity factor is a real difference-maker there.”
