Wind energy CEO says turbines are big enough for now

Henrik Andersen, CEO of one of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers, believes that wind turbines are big enough for now and that the main challenge is to increase output.

Anderson, CEO of Danish wind energy giant Vestas, said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, that his company is not currently planning to make turbines any bigger than they currently are.

Vestas launched in early 2021 a 15MW offshore wind turbine, which at the time was the largest in the world.

The company’s 15MW prototype began producing power over the New Year period at the Østerild National test centre for large wind turbines in Western Jutland, Denmark.

Even though the 15MW turbine was at the time of launch the world’s largest, it had taken Vestas longer than its competitors to roll out the latest generation of its offshore turbine. This meant that it was trailing behind its biggest competitors, GE and Siemens Gamesa.

GE and Siemens Gamesa had both already unveiled 14MW offshore wind turbines, but since Vestas debuted its V236-15.0 MW turbine, China’s own wind turbine OEMs have stepped up to challenge their European peers.

Beijing headquartered Goldwind debuted a 16MW turbine in November – and not just as a future promise, but with an actual turbine rolling off the production line.

Meanwhile, another Chinese wind turbine OEM, MingYang Smart Energy, unveiled plans for a 16MW wind turbine all the way back in the middle of 2021, and has since upped the ante with plans for an 18MW wind turbine.

The MySE 18.X-28X wind turbine is planned to bast 140-metre-long blades and a rotor diameter of 280 metres. In terms of output, under annual average wind speeds of 8.5m/s, each turbine can generate 80GWh of electricity per year – the equivalent power to supply 96,000 homes.

At the same time, China State Shipbuilding Corporation has also announced this month it plans to build an 18MW wind turbine of its own.

Andersen’s comments, then, make an interesting contrast with Chinese wind turbine OEMs in lockstep to build ever-bigger turbines, and even their European counterparts planning larger turbines.

Instead of planning ever-larger wind turbines, Andersen says that Vestas is looking to expand output to meet global clean energy targets. Andersen also said that Vestas will be focusing on global manufacturing and expansion of some of its existing sites.