Vestas has secured a firm order from US utility Xcel Energy for the first phase of the Blazing Star project in the upper Midwestern state of Minnesota, and will supply 184MW of its V120-2.2MW turbines.

The 200MW Blazing Star I will also use some Vestas 2.0MW turbines that Xcel purchased previously in order to safe-harbour the project for the production tax credit.

Vestas will begin delivering turbines from the third quarter of 2019, and Xcel expects to bring the project on line by the end of that year. The deal includes a 10-year service agreement.

The V120-2.2MW model is the latest upgrade to Vestas’ 2MW platform in the booming US market, boasting a 19% larger swept area than the previous 2.0MW model.

The Danish OEM says the upgrade will help developers make projects pencil out in low- and medium-wind speed regions, where wind farms would have been uneconomic in years past.

“The V120-2.2MW is an increasingly important part of our North American fleet of customisable, flexible products that unlock previously untouched wind resources,” says Chris Brown, president of Vestas’ sales and service division in the US and Canada.

Xcel, a utility holding group with subsidiaries across the country, is in the midst of one of the largest wind expansion programmes in US history, with plans to add 3.7GW across seven states by the end of 2021 as part of its “steel for fuel” strategy.

By the early 2020s Xcel expects to have more than 10GW of wind on its multi-state system, with a growing proportion of it owned in-house.

Wind

Xcel taps Vestas for 184MW turbine order in Minnesota