Vestas Launches New Turbine Targeting Cheaper US Wind Farms

Danish wind energy major, Vestas has launched a new wind turbine with aims to meet the market constraints and reduced LCoE demands of the US wind power sector.

Following the launch of the EnVentus platform in January, including the V162-5.6 MW and V150-5.6 MW turbines, the company introduced the V138-3.0 MW turbine. Based on the scalable EnVentus platform architecture, the V138-3.0 MW’s 138m rotor provides a large rotor-size-to-generator-rating ratio, strengthening Vestas’ portfolio of turbines through superior park level energy production, higher certainty in performance, and reduced levelised cost of energy.

Chris Brown, President of Vestas’ sales and service division in the United States and Canada said, “The V138-3.0 MW underlines Vestas ability to continuously innovate and lead the industry in developing customisable and sustainable energy solutions that meet our customers’ needs. This turbine is a perfect match for the North American market where higher certainty in Annual Energy Production at park level will become increasingly important for our customers to secure project financing and ensure profitability in a post-PTC market.”

The V138-3.0 MW is globally applicable but purposely designed to maximise performance under market specific constraint conditions. By combining the V138-3.0 MW turbine’s 138m rotor with an 83m tower, the new turbine offers the industry’s largest swept area under 152.4m (500ft), a relevant height constraint in the United States. At the same time, the turbine’s leading sound power levels makes it highly suitable for low wind sites in sound sensitive markets such as France.

Anders Vedel, Vestas Chief Technology Officer, said, “With the introduction of the V138-3.0 MW, we take another step forward in versatility and scalability of functional systems, demonstrating modular product development’s huge potential and how it supports our vision to become the global leader in sustainable energy solutions. I’m proud that, by utilising many of the same components as the first two turbines, we can introduce the V138-3.0 MW to meet customer requirements while lowering the levelised cost of energy and optimising the value chain.”